Amir and Delfino swap places

PS wins this thread, this internet, this beer I’m drinking.

Sidenote, PS, Joel, etc:

“Wed, Dec 02 Detroit at Chicago 8:00 PM ET”

You guys in?

"Wed, Dec 02 Detroit at Chicago 8:00 PM ET"

All-encompassingly.

I like the debate about stuck and rose, because stuck being dominate against rose and us having BG should place us hire than CHI as far as playoff seeding.

Dominant. Higher. Jesus.

Dude, who cares.

OT, here is my best keyboard-based impression of boobs:

(o)(o)

All of Mike’s “Trade Amir Now” posts have accumalated and sent Amir into a Quentin Richardson like trade spiral.

I wonder if he even got a chance to post on brewhoop.com before it happened.

8

/sideways mismatchin boobs

@MFSKZ:
8008IES

I heard Esran was coming back to the Bucks anyway, so that would have ment even less minutes for Amir in Milwaukee(Esran and warrick).

@MP

Yup.

Sidenote, PS, Joel, etc:

"Wed, Dec 02 Detroit at Chicago 8:00 PM ET"

You guys in?

Speaking of such an outing, any DBB’ers in the Toronto area interested in hitting up the Air Canada Centre for this?

Wed, Nov 04 Detroit at Toronto 7:00 PM ET

P.S. Other than Garrett are there any other DBB’ers up this way?

Why is Toronto referred to as T-Dot? What’s the derivation?

Why is Toronto referred to as T-Dot? What’s the derivation?

It comes from the T.0. nickname (as in Toronto, Ontario) which is sometimes shortened to read T. or T-dot.

Sean W: I’d be in. We could make a big DBB sign and I could shave my eyebrows in support of Charlie V.

Guys,

I’m sorry to say it… but with the signing of Calbert Cheaney to the Warriors’ staff, there’s no reason to play the upcoming season. Just hand them the trophy.

/LawyerBoy’d
/tell me what college you went to so I can tell you how much your basketball team sucks in comparison to IU
/you obviously didn’t go to college because you had to ask me who a randomass guy was that I mentioned on a basketball blog that doesn’t even play basketball
/Life fail.

Trade Villa for Jared Jeffries now?

Joe D should’ve been fired for even thinking about trading DJ White

I hate Brett Favre.

Birdman, good reading if you want Favretired.

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2009/08/f—king-lazy-old-c—ksucker-f—k.html

More good Farve haterade:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/The-Shutdown-Five-Favorite-Brett-Favre-press-co?urn=nfl,183827

Yep Onions. I didn’t watch the press conference so the quotes and stuff are pretty amusing.

look in the right column, under “shutdown corner recent readers”. hurry.

you’ll shit bricks.

Must’ve missed it, MP. What’s so funny?

@ Shinons. I had seen those. I figured Big Daddy Drew (a fellow Vikings fan) would have a quality rant on KSK. I hope Favre gets injured in preseason. I don’t want him breaking Jim Marshall’s record for consecutive games (non-kicker) in a Vikings uniform.

@Birdman:
It’s still there for me— a tiny profile pic under the “shutdown corner recent readers”. Let’s just say something got past Yahoo’s decency filter.

I saw it. Gross brah!

@Birdman – I hope he has wonderful health this season. No better way to ensure that the Vikings go 8-8 than having Farve behind center.

@QD re: T Dot. I blame this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liuj1WjgqCo

Ugh.

Ok I looked it up.

Rose: 10 pts, 5 ast, 4 reb, 1 st, 2 to, 6 pf
Stuckey: 40pts, 4 ast, 2 reb, 4 st, 3 to, 2 pf

Stuckey dominated, I was wrong.

Good ole’ balloon knot. Nice find, MP.

Last two meetings between Rose and Stuckey:

4/13/2009 – Loss
Rose: 24/8/5
Stuck: 16/9/7

2/10/2009 – Loss
Rose: 23/4/2
Stuck: 16/5/4

Neither loss was Stuck’s fault. They probably played eachother to a draw. It was that damned Ben Gordon motherfucker and his clutch heroics. I wish we had a late-game assassin on our team…

So, who do you guys think was a better PG? John Crotty, or Corey Benjamin?

Discuss.

Good shit Joel. some here act like Rose is the second coming of Jordan. Stuck in my opinion clearly neutralizes him.

Rose certainly plays as well as you’d hope a Rookie 1st. overall pick would. He’s dynamic. Gives CHI some shit to holler about.

Over here, I’m optimistic about Rodney.

i like this pistons’ buzzer beater video… shows buzzer beaters each from our original core of big ben, tayshaun, rip, chauncey and sheed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA0Bxc6dFZc

So, how about that universal health care?

lolz i kid, i kid.

@ Skylar, not hating on the Chi. I hope they are right there with us fighting for dominance in the near future as opposed to Cleveland and Boston. Just hope they play second fiddle to us.

@mannie32, nice video. made me get goose bumps. all I could do is shake my head and long for the days of old. Wasn’t that Boston one during the playoffs? that was almost as painful as all of the overtimes we played against New Jersey in 03.

Me too, man. Never been a Bulls fan, I’m from Detroit. Always will be.

Veronica > Betty

To me it was never a question. I thought they stopped doing those comics years ago.

Archie Shepp > Archie comics

Ginger > Mary Ann

Gwen > Mary Jane

Betty Rubble > Wilma Flintstone

Cool article on a potential Next Ben Wallace:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/How-Jarvis-Varnado-became-the-nation-s-best-walk;_ylt=AjIClV9WZxNdNzdRs3CqsHw5nYcB?urn=ncaab,183885

Hopefully Dumars finds out about that kid.

“Jason Maxiell embraces a summer of change”

“On Tuesday morning his bride, Brandi, was sitting in the stands watching her guy teach boys and girls shooting pointers.”

Jason Maxiell teaching kids how to shoot jumpers? The horror.

I hope they checked to make sure those children were old enough. They could have all been in grave danger.

“What happened to all the kids?”

“Oh, JASON! Not again! They WERE NOT BABIES!”

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090819/SPORTS03/908190399&plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:588f9ec9-6c4a-4e6f-b09b-cdcd0a415403

Sorry. Link above.

@Big Z:
His bride, Brandi? I AM AN INTERNET NINJA!!!!! Small pic, but it does prove that Jason Maxiell actually has a heart.

Wow, that’s a great article on Jarvis Varnado. I have him ranked number two on the next Ben Wallace list.

Behind Larry Sanders (great rebounder/shotblocker, goes to a small school in Virginia, attended Ben Wallace camps):

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Larry-Sanders-5148/

And ahead of overseas free agent Timofey Mozgov:

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Timofey-Mozgov-5161/

@QD:
re: Timofey Mozgov, via DraftExpress:

H: 7’ 1"
W: 0 lbs
Bday: 07/16/1986
(23 Years Old)

While his stats are impressive, I think he seriously needs to put on some weight before he’ll be NBA ready.

In other news, Dumars gets blasted.

http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/816/20090819/dissecting_the_2009_offeason/

@ Glenn, There are so many holes in that article that trying to debate them is like making preparation to write a thesis. No one is truly 100 % happy with all the moves Joe has made. But looking at the bright side of things… the only ugly contract we have is Rips. and that isn’t horrible. if the salary cap falls like expected next yr. Detroit is going to be one of a few teams with a lot of moveable assets. I hate that writers still write from the perspective of 2010 being a bonanza. Its becoming more and more obvious that Joe saw that it isn’t. 2 guys who put up the #s that BG & CV do is a bargain. in a yr teams are gonna be hard pressed to make a move while still being fiscal, Its a good time to stock pile talent. which is what Joe has done. none of the moves that he made are etched and stone. so any kinks can and should be easily corrected.

I agree with the mad scientist

@scntf:
the only ugly contract we have is Rips

I hate to be a broken record (no I don’t), but Rip’s contract is just fine. It is only ugly in the context of signing Ben Gordon. Inversely, Ben Gordon’s contract is just fine too. It’s only ugly in the context of the Rip Hamilton extension.

Also, CV’s contract is awesome. While I was an early fan of CV when he was in Toronto, I thought he was headed for a career as a flaky, injury-prone underachiever. Even then, he’s worth the contract Joe gave him.

As I’ve said before, I remain skeptical on Joe until we cut our SG investment in half— and by this coming trade deadline. Should that happen, my only beefs with Dumars in the last 8 years are MCIAFI and Darko.

I have a tough time disagreeing with many of that RealGM "writer"’s points. But a few of the laughable ones:

Joe Dumars had a largely blank slate to build a team with some solid assets, and he turned that into a squad with no #1 scorer, no point guard, no young defenders, and no low post scorers. Now that’s an accomplishment.

No #1 scorers, no point guard, no low post scorers. That’s what, according to people like this writer, we started the 2003-04 championship season with.

Gordon and Stuckey form the worst defensive backcourt in the entire league

By what metric?

problems with paying Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva an estimated $18 million per year

Villanueva came CHEAP. I don’t understand the complaint about that.

it moves Rodney Stuckey firmly to PG where he had a negative net PER this past season

Not difficult when your team is < 500 and your backcourt mate is 5’2".

…and hasn’t shown the ability to run an offense

You looking at assist numbers to make that call? Explain Tony Parker, please. If you’re watching tape, I counter MCIAFI.

The other mindblowing decision of this offseason was drafting Austin Daye, Jonas Jerebko, and DeJuan Summers, all of whom play small forward.

I’m with you there, 100%. Don’t forget about Chase Budinger.

While that RealGM article is the most negative review of the Pistons moves I’ve read so far, I do think it’s pretty telling that that there basically hasn’t been a single hugely positive review of our off-season by any source without a direct relationship to the Pistons (either by being a fan, or part of the Detroit media).

“If the salary cap falls like expected next yr. Detroit is going to be one of a few teams with a lot of moveable assets.”
-scntfc

? How do we have moveable assets? IMO, for the next couple years, we have one of the least flexible rosters in the league. We have $40mil already locked up through 2012-2013 just in the following players:

Rip/Gordon/CV/Max/Daye

When you add in Stuckey being due an extension in 2011 (and an extension for MFWB after this season), suddenly we’ll be right up against the cap through at least 2013. We’re three and a half years away from having moveable assets.

Well, you’ve got Tay, on a soon to be expiring deal that just so happens to be very reasonable, backed up by 3 rookies, one of whom should be able to take his place at some point.

You’ve got Kwame, who’s expiring next year and signed to a reasonable contract. (Also Wilcox soon.)

You’ve got CV, signed to a price that may seem very reasonable when he reaches his prime.

You can debate the merits of the other contracts, but I don’t see any of the others as being unmovable, meaning the roster is at least “flexible”. You have enough money signed into the players above to make at least 2 different big moves. Looks pretty good to me, and I’m sure that that is why Joe is not too worried about the redundancy in the SG position (which is also a position of strength to deal from for trades).

@ Gabe,

 there basically hasn’t been a single hugely positive review of our off-season by any source

I agree with you there. the best article outside of homerville that I have seen has been the slamonline article, titled “Better Than You Think” although it is not glowing it does put a more positive slant on things, which I believe in totally. Add to that, the fact that it has been the culture of the franchise for our moves to be questioned and or ridiculed preceding title runs. ‘03, Adrian Dantley, Mark Agguire
  and while the majority of the country “Laker fans” will tell you it was a fluke. we know that it wasn’t because we saw it from the ground up. Dumars clearly had a formula and a plan. And it seems that he has went out and duplicated that formula with whatever resources were availible to him.

? How do we have moveable assets?

virtually every contract that we have is moveable, because all of them are friendly. Like in my previous post rips is the only questionable one because of the overload of talent that we have at that position. otherwise pretty much everyone is being paid what they are worth or at a bargain. BG &CV respectively. Bynum, and Tay, Kwame, Wilcox, Ben and even Stuck can be easily moved this season due to length and or price of their contract.

@ Mike Payne

The other mindblowing decision of this offseason was drafting Austin Daye, Jonas Jerebko, and DeJuan Summers, all of whom play small forward.

I’m with you there, 100%. Don’t forget about Chase Budinger

Joe’s statements before the draft lets me know that this was by design. He clearly said that he was gonna draft for talent and not need. As I think we are all sure that Even if we had drafted and filled our hole. that would still be a longshot at making us any better than we already are.

thanks Drew, you beat me to the punch!

It’s very much en vogue right now to bash Dumars. We’ve been so good for so long that I think the collective media got sick of us, so now that we’ve got a brand new roster that’s completely unproven as a unit, everyone’s taking potshots because they can. No biggie. We’re basically one “defensive stopper” big man away from being a contender— we’ve already got without a doubt the best 4-guard rotation in all of basketball (seriously, can you name a better guard 4some than Stuck/MFWB/Rip/BG?). Anyone with half a basketball brain should be able to see that. And if our guys buy into the defensive system (and Ben being back will aid this tremendously), we’ve got the offensive firepower to make some noise even this year.

I fully expect the Pistons to be the topic of quite a few “This Year’s Biggest Surprise” segments on PTI, NBA Fastbreak, etc. by the All-Star break. And it will be very gratifying given the heaps of unwarranted negativity— and I say “unwarranted” because Toronto has spent more money than us on much more questionable characters and everyone’s saying Colangelo’s some type of genius while throwing Joe and his extremely reasonably priced team under the bus.

@scntf:
Joe’s statements before the draft lets me know that this was by design. He clearly said that he was gonna draft for talent and not need. As I think we are all sure that Even if we had drafted and filled our hole. that would still be a longshot at making us any better than we already are.

I fundamentally disagree on two points:
He clearly said that he was gonna draft for talent and not need.

Just because he proclaimed his plan pre-draft doesn’t mean I agree with it, nor does it make the move smart.

As I think we are all sure that Even if we had drafted and filled our hole. that would still be a longshot at making us any better than we already are.

I remain committed to the opinion that if Joe drafted differently after Daye, it could have increased our W/L slightly. If the race for the 8th seed is anywhere near as tight as it was last year, another win or two, maybe three, could entirely change our outlook.

I’m no GM, I’m not in Joe’s seat, I don’t know what he does. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with his strategy. We’ve had the Summers vs. Blair discussion here ad nauseum, and I don’t want to spark that debate again. But we now have FOUR small forwards whose contracts expire in the same year— and only 48 minutes a game to go around. Unless Joe trades Tayshaun, we’ll never truly see what those 2nd rounders can do before their contracts expire and they go blow up on some other team.

See, now I didn’t even read that article until right now, and AGAIN some choad is worshiping Toronto’s moves and blasting Detroit’s. Explain to me how giving a 30 year-old 6’10" SF who plays what is widely considered the worst defense in all the NBA 5 years and $50 million and giving a 7’ “center” who averages 5 rebounds a game and has no post game 5 years and $50 million are in any way, shape, or form “good moves.” Jarrett Jack and Reggie Evens are their toughest players and they’re both coming off the bench. Bosh is extravagantly overrated. Ditto with Calderon. I just don’t see how they had the second best offseason and Detroit had the worst.

It seems like every year the media really really wants Toronto to do well, so they suck Colangelo’s cock like he’s some type of genius— but really, what has he done? Steve Nash makes everyone look good, Toronto hasn’t done shit since Colangelo’s been there, and please don’t tell me that being the “architect” of the Redeem Team is something to be proud of— anybody can put together an NBA Live dream team. Every single one of us could’ve put together a squad that wins a gold medal. He’s overrated, the Raptors are overrated, and it’s going to be very satisfying when they finish with 35 wins again.

@Joel:
Bravo. +1000.

@MP
But we now have FOUR small forwards whose contracts expire in the same year– and only 48 minutes a game to go around. Unless Joe trades Tayshaun, we’ll never truly see what those 2nd rounders can do before their contracts expire and they go blow up on some other team.

I don’t see how this would really affect our W/L for this season. I’m totally with you about avoiding the Blair-Summers argument (thank you!), but in regards to this season would Blair be so much of an upgrade over Wilcox, Ben, or whoever is getting those big man minutes in the rotation that it would result in extra wins? If it turns out that during the season we are losing games because of rebounding, maybe, but that’s the only case that I think the overloading of SFs hurts us for this year.

…my only beefs with Dumars in the last 8 years are MCIAFI and Darko.

What was wrong with the Darko pick?

@Shinons:
For one, using that 2nd round pick differently could have meant that we wouldn’t have needed Wilcox and Ben (although I’d still want the latter). I think the case for rebounding alone is more important than might be realized. Having lost our best rebounder in Dyess and added a few mediocre ones, the ability to change or maintain possession of the ball could be our greatest failure. I think that adding a specialist to this role as the first big off the bench could very well have increased our W/L.

The Darko pick was a draft of need.and based on potential alone,in drafting him Joe knew that he couldn’t contribute immediately. where asif he had taken Melo. we would have had the redundancy argument that we are having now.

I have to disagree with the “redundancy” argument presented against drafting Melo. Tay and Melo are two completely different players, whereas Rip and Gordon bring virtually the same things to the table—the only difference being Rip has a stronger mid-range game and Gordon has a stronger 3-pointer. Even on potential alone back in 2003, Melo would’ve been a much better option as a starting SF, and Tay would’ve been perfect as a defensive stopper off the bench, which has been a better role for him all along. This would’ve addressed one of our primary needs for the past 5 years of not having a capable back-up 3.

Fair enough. I’m hoping that Ben can fill that role as the specialist, and provide even more value with his shotblocking presence. I’m high on Blair and certainly agree that if he’s half the beast on the offensive glass that he was at Pitt, well, we have a team that could definitely do something with those extra possessions.

Hopefully the reason for the decision to pass is that Jod has his eye on someone to fill the role long-term in next year’s draft – preferably me and QD’s guys Larry Sanders and Jarvis Varnado.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/flash/zoomGallery?section=gen&photoGalleryId=4405926

Skip to #13

@ Kay Wan, I second that. but the consensus at the time was what I stated. Even then A true center was our biggest hole. and 5 years later we are still no closer to getting it (one). one can only dream about how many “belts” we would have had we taken Melo.

@Shinons:
Hopefully the reason for the decision to pass is that Jod has his eye on someone to fill the role long-term in next year’s draft – preferably me and QD’s guys Larry Sanders and Jarvis Varnado.

Man, I’m with you, I’ve been waiting for Joe to actually draft a big for years. Honestly, I cannot remember the last big Joe drafted aside from Samb.

@scntf:
if he had taken Melo. we would have had the redundancy argument that we are having now.

It is a very, very different thing to argue about redundancy and 2nd round picks than it is to argue about redundancy and a 2nd pick overall— especially in the greatest draft class since Jordan. If he had taken Melo, or Wade, or Bosh, any “redundancy” is a problem you certainly don’t complain about. This situation is entirely different.

Mike P. dont mind me. some of the things I type are me quoting things that were said from my recollection. I agree with you about it being a different situation. but Joe at the time said that his faith was in Tay, and that he was going to be our guy.all of this makes me realize how difficult his job is. because at the time everyone (GMs, media) said Darko was the smart choice. I remember some folks actually trying to pry him away after the season ended. so Joe can do two things, do what everyone projects is the best move and hence Darko. or think “act” outside of the box and be ridiculed like he is today.

wasn’t it bryan colangelo who traded jason kidd straight up for stephon marbury?

Man, I’m with you, I’ve been waiting for Joe to actually draft a big for years. Honestly, I cannot remember the last big Joe drafted aside from Samb.

There have been quite a few – there was also Amir, Maxiell, Okur, and, ahem, Darko.

Certainly seems like Jod usually goes the free agency route with bigs though.

The draft is where Dumars gets the most grief with picks like Mateen Cleaves, Rodney White and of course Darko Milicic. I actually give Dumars some slack on the Darko pick since David Aldridge reported prior to Detroit ever getting the No. 2 pick that whoever was to land in that spot would select Darko once LeBron James was off the board. Every general manager in the league would have taken Darko just as Dumars did, so to crucify him for that pick, which has become the norm, is a bit harsh.

here is a little piece that I got off of eXaminer.com, sorry I dont know how to embed.

The Pistons didn’t draft 3 small forwards. They drafted 3 combo forward. All three can credibly play both forward spots based on matchups. Throw in Villanueva and Washington and Maxiell and you have 6 young forwards. Law of averages says that enough of them will develop such that those two positions are locked up.

With BG, Stuckey and Bynum is seems like the Guard spots are pretty locked up too.

Some of you guys make it seem like it’s impossible to make a trade, draft pick or free agent signing for the next five years.

picking nits, MP, but LA drafted samb, and we traded mo evans for him. So, i’m coming up short on the last big we drafted.

scott pollard??? I’m not counting memo, i guess, since he wasn’t a true 5.

Side note to the Darko/Melo conversation:

If we had drafted Melo, and assuming that with Melo in the mix, we don’t trade for Rasheed, but we keep Okur long-term… Could we have won more than 1 title with a core of Billups, Rip, Melo, Okur, Ben, and Prince? Maybe 2004 doesn’t end in a title, but maybe we are the best team in the east from 06 through 08? That would have been absolutely interesting considering the Melo/LeBron “rivalry” that never really developed.

this is a crazy idea:

http://valleyofthesuns.com/2009/08/20/the-case-for-a-press-and-four-minutes-of-hell/

who would the “press lineup” be for this year’s pistons?

MFWB-Gordon-Washington-Daye-Wilcox?

@Scott:
Why the hell not? It’s worth trying, at least. And I agree with your lineup should we play with the Press.

So many posts on this blog come down to this. Individually, Detroit has a bunch of good players, many of whom could realistically get better. CV has at least a good offensive game, Gordon is a closer, Rip and Tay probably still have a lot left, Ben can be a leader off the court, Kwame is a good value for the money, Maxy could realistically get back to where we want him to be consistently, and the draft picks all look pretty intriguing.

But as a team the pieces don’t match up so well. Rip and Ben are redundant and will create a temptation to play small ball. Physically, Ben is a significantly dimished version of his former self, and his former self was a liability on offense. Now instead of no decent backups for Tay, we have three? Who is going to rebound? Who is going to score in the post? Yeah, I know the 2004 team had no great post scorer, but they had a mess of other plusses (historically ferocious defense, five starters all at least second-team all-star quality, and a very deep bench, with the Pit Bulls, Corliss, and Memo).

So it does come down to trades and FA acquistions, if Detroit is going to be elite again. There is no, one, super-obvious, clearly plausible deal I can think of. The most obvious would be Rip or Gordon maybe + something for a legit stud center, but who specifically is going to do that?.

At least the team got a lot younger. . . .

I feel like MFWB should be “pressing” the ball handler every possession he’s in the game, regardless if we’re actually running a traditional press. Literally from the inbound pass onward I’d like to see Will hounding his guy, just like Lindsey Hunter used to. You saw in limited spurts at the end of last season how effective he can be disrupting the ball-handler.

D’OH BY GAWD BENN IZ DA SEEZUN GUNNA STRT!!!???

I H8T ULL DISS TAWLKIN BRUM DOO GEIS!!!

smh

I don’t think we need a “stud” center. We just need somebody to pull down double-figure boards and play ferocious defense. Pryzbilla comes to mind. Gortat would’ve been perfect. I think Houston has a diamond-in-the-rough in Joey Dorsey. That type of guy. We have all the scoring we’ll need, inside and out. People talk about not having an interior scorer, but CV can get buckets inside and Wilcox is much more capable than a lot of people are giving him credit for— he has a nice little baby hook, a turnaround jumper out to like 8 feet or so, and if he’s anywhere near the rim he’ll just dunk over everyone. Don’t forget that most of MFWB’s and Stuckey’s baskets come in the painted area too— you don’t necessary have to score in the paint with your bigs (see: Wade, Lebron, Kobe, Paul, etc.). We never have and never will lead the league in points in the paint, but we’re not nearly as bad off as some people are making us out to be.

Come to think of it, who ever scored in the paint for us? Rasheed when he felt like it (2-3 shots a game)… Dyce had no inside game, Ben was obviously an offensive trainwreck… Corliss maybe? Even at our best, we were a very efficient jump-shooting team. We’re still that, but I think we have more explosive athletes and slashers who will spend a little more time in the lane than anyone on the ’04-08 teams did.

Joel:

FWIW, I would happily accept as a “stud” center somebody who can pull down double-figure boards and play ferocious defense.

I still would like to see some more interior scoring. I hope you’re right about CV and Wilcox. You’re right that we never had a consistent post scorer (although ‘Sheed played there more in ’04 than he did last year), and we proved you can win a ’ship without it, but I still think it’s a minus. You better have a lot of other things going for you. in ‘04-’07, Detroit got away with being a low scoring team on nights when the jumpers weren’t falling, but they could often rely on a ferocious defense and win 83-76 or whatever. I don’t see this current lineup winning by shutting down the other team.

If JOD is really using the same blueprint he used before then we probably need to give him at least 2 more yrs. too fill the holes. We had all kinds of holes in 2001 and 2002 it wasn’t til 2003 we started to look solid ,even tho we won alot of games, we weren’t going to the finals with those squads.I’m sure JOD’s gonna makes some trades even if he has to package some guys ,the bigger question is who the hell can he get for a solid center , the ones he might be able to trade for are either too old ,too injury prone or can’t score or rebound , any team that has a descent back up won’t give them up.Which leaves the draft or more likely european centers.In the days of the first bad boys there were alot of good centers out there now its the most barren position in the league, what the hell, have colledges stop mentoring centers or what.

I’d rather have two decent PFs manning the 4 and 5 than a decent PF and some tall guy we found in the middle of no where as our centre. I think we’ll be okay with Wilcox/Kwame/Ben because opposing centres just aren’t that scary any more. If we can pick up some awesome 5 then I’m all for it, but who can we get? Amare (who isn’t really a centre)? Bosh (who also isn’t really a centre)? Kaman? Camby? Pretty slim pickin’s.

Again, while I would be happy with someone in the Ben Wallace ‘04 mode of big time rebounder / great defense, there’s another reason to want a post presence in the paint - it makes it a lot easier for the jump shooters. Look at Orlando and Howard — toss it in, draw a double, toss it out, swish.

You don’t even need a monster in the middle who will consistently draw a double team. You just need a big who is a legit threat to score down low that will get the other teams guards (or sometimes forwards) to cheat a bit toward the big — giving our guards precious space.

This could be especially useful to the Pistons, because their jump shooters don’t have the range that, say, Orlando’s jumpshooters do, so Detroit can’t spread the floor quite as much, so they need other edges to get away from defenders. I mean, I love watching Rip run through three screens trying to get space as much as the next guy, but it would be nice to have another option.

http://dimemag.com/2009/08/source-allen-iverson-to-the-bobcats/

So Petey has found a home…

@Gabe:

“While that RealGM article is the most negative review of the Pistons moves I’ve read so far, I do think it’s pretty telling that that there basically hasn’t been a single hugely positive review of our off-season by any source without a direct relationship to the Pistons (either by being a fan, or part of the Detroit media).”

That is simply not so…

“One radio station in Ithaca, New York seems to believe the Detroit Pistons could be as high as the 4th seed in the NBA playoffs this season.”

http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/2009/08/saturday_morning_detroit_pisto.html

There is an article on pistons.com about a few teams out west that will be vey thin this coming season. Denver, Utah, Portland, NO. which makes me appreciate what we have here a little more. we can add houston snd sacremento to that list of teams that will be searching for upgrades/fillers. Without a doubt it makes one wonder if the power has shifted back to the east. It also puts us in a postion where teams that are looking to fill some holes this season will have to At Least deal with us as a third party in trying to make something happen. As we are one of only a few teams that seems to have a surplus of moveable parts.

So Petey has found a home…

And it’s home to John Edwards…how appropriate…

@Shinons:
snare snare, crash!!

Salud, my friend :)

it makes one wonder if the power has shifted back to the east

No doubt, we are Leastern no more. This season, three teams tied 11 games behind LA in the West, with Houston at 12. The elite teams are truly in the East now. There would be 4 if it weren’t for the Chauncey trade, at least for this past season. If Atlanta, Miami, Toronto and Washington can get themselves together this season, I think it’ll be clear cut where the power is.

In the East, the best are better than the best in the West. Additionally, the worst in the East are much better than the worst in the West. Represent!

TWEEET TWEEEEEEEEEET!!

lions suck

They sure do. 17-0 after less than half of the first quarter?

LIONS suck
BROWN BEAR balls
while getting humped by PATRIOTS raw
Getting pissed on by PANTHERS
and stomped out by COLTS
49ers and buccaneers
say their the butt of all jokes
so they got RAMmed hard by CHARGERS
and teabagged by TITANS
they surrendered to panty RAIDERS
without even fighting
they invited the team from WASHINGTON
to get their rocks off and
by halftime it was poppin
but by the 3rd quarter
They were soft and wetter than DOLPHINS
So along came a COWBOY
to talk piece with the CHIEF
he thought he saw a GIANT
he shook like a leaf
on the horizen he could SEAHAWKS
and FALCONS closing in for the kill
an EAGLE landed nearby
in his beak were some BILLS
he approached with caution
thats when he realized his CARDINAL sin

sorry guys cant come up with any more, help me finish this ode to the lions…

SAINTS don’t approach PACKERS
on behalf of other men
so he mounted his BRONCO
and proceeded to break wind
out jumped a JAGUAR
and tore him limb from Limb
RAVENS flew in like JETS
they were particularly pleased
they feasted on carrion
like VIKINGS filled with glee.

Sometimes its better NOT to hit the submit button.

funny stuff. I have no sympathy for them losers either.

Getting back to the original topic of this blog entry … i.e. the trade of Delfino & Ukic for Amir Johnson & Sonny Weems:

Can someone with acute insight into the Pistons situation from last season please let me know their perspective on the reason[s]:

• Amir Johnson failed to hold onto the Starting PF position which was bestowed on him by Michael Curry at the beginning of the year?

• Joe Dumars was willing to give up Amir Johnson in a trade with Milwaukee this summer?

From a distance, at least, Amir Johnson was a still young player with a great deal of upside to his individual game, as a non-shot happy, athletic, role-playing PF for the Pistons at the start of last season. Then, a scant 9 months later … he is deemed to be a relatively insignificant piece to the puzzle in Detroit.

Thanks, in advance.

No one has any information to pass along in regards to the two questions I asked?