Ben Gordon speaks

Gordon sounds less sure that he is coming off the bench than Joe Dumars did when he talked over the summer.

Gordon has mentioned in prior interviews that he indeed is coming off the bench.

In other news, AI officially is a Grizzly. Oh how far he has fallen.

Ben Gordon seems like a smart, capable guy. Maybe it’s the British English…but I’m still impressed.

In other news, AI officially is a Grizzly. Oh how far he has fallen.

Dude, that was obvious six months ago when he struggled to score 18 per.

This is quite a change from the cocky braggadocio of Rasheed Wallace. Now we have a guy who could lead the team in scoring saying things like “this is going to take years.” I can’t say I’m disappointed. I like reality.

It sounds like BG is ready to prove that he can be the bestest point guard ever!

Hey khandor!

Errr, Colin.

BEN SEEMS TO HAVE MUCH CLASS AND GREAT SPORTSMANSHIP,AND IT SEEMS LIKE HE HAS THAT GO GET IT ATTITUDE THAT MOST PEOPLE IN DETROIT HAS, SO THEREFORE HE SHOULD FIT RIGHT IN TO THE SYSTEM. I FOR ONE HAVE GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THE PISTONS AND BEN GORDAN. EVEN IF THEY DON’T WIN IT ALL MAKING CHANGES AND JELLING ATTITUDES TO MAKE A TEAM BETTER, THEY ARE ALREADY WINNERS IN MY BOOK. I KNOW IT MAY TAKE A WHILE BUT I BELIEVE THAT THE PISTONS WILL BE THE SLEEPERS THIS YEAR. THEY WILL WIN BIG THIS YEAR BECAUSE NO ONE IS STUBBURN, AND EVERYONE IS HUNGRY AND WE’RE KIND OF EMBARRASSED BEHIND LAST YEAR, BUT DETROITER’S DO WELL WITH THEIR BACKS UP AGAINST THE WALL.
GO PISTONS GO TO WORK.

Hey FRED W. CAPEL!

Errr, A WATSON.

epinion

@PS:

+1

So. Completely. Fucking. Annoying.

Sheeitt, at least Capslock over there didn’t mention Willie Bynum. I’d be sharpening my Rambo knife right now

I think the knife from cobra was a little more badass

I prefer the weapon from Krull and an MF Doom mask.

lol@MP

A Krull reference is always a good thing.

I haven’t seen Gijoe3000 yet. How about some Klingon type shits

A Watson: Take your damn caps lock off and learn to how freaking spell.

CODY: DON’T GET MAD BECAUSE OF MY OPINIONS AND THE FACT THAT I’M A DIE HARD FAN. I MIGHT HAVE MADE SOME SPELLING ERRORS, BUT I CAN SPELL!! SO GO TO HELL IF YOU DON’T LIKE ME REPRESENTING MY HOME TEAM. I’M NOT A FAIR WEATHER FAN, PISTON FAN FOR LIFE CAN U READ GO TO HELL. LOL

YEAH, LOL.

I AGREE WITH MIKE PAYNE.

TRADE ALL CAPS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

trade all-lowercase, especially khandor. sorry, brgulker, you got to go. heh heh.

Guys, if it weren’t for kahndor, there would have been nothing to debate here this week.

I don’t agree with the guy, but the debate was enjoyable.

I like the fact that after a divided summer, we are all united in hatred toward Khandor’s dumb ass.

Yeah, it was kind of fun to have khandor around, and I’m looking forward to his sporadic returns during the regular season.

I’ve been treating my Pistons obsession by visiting the Twitter pages of Villanueva, Summers, and Daye.

http://twitter.com/CV31
http://twitter.com/dsummers35
http://twitter.com/adaye5

The Wrong DaJuan is by far the most entertaining. Daye, on the other hand, is a colossal bore.

Any ESPN Insider see what the “Ben Gordon’s Role on the Pistons” article? Feel like posting a rough summary?

@b23:
you may not actually want to see it. vomit. here it is, in its entirety:

New Pistons coach John Kuester can’t wait to begin working with the teams re-vamped roster. One decision he has not made is whether Ben Gordon will start or come offer the bench.

“You don’t want to pigeon-hole a player of Ben Gordon’s ability,” Kuester told The Detroit News. “Starting or not starting, he has a lot that he brings to the table. He wants to prove he’s not one dimensional. He’s still young.”

If we don’t start Rip, that better mean we’ll be trading him by the deadline.

If we don’t start Rip I think he might cut a bitch.

@Garrett:
I’ll hand him a knife. Better yet, the weapon from Krull. ;)

Oh.

Shit.

So, AI + Petey in the stands < Rip with Krullweapon.

But, if Rip sits on the bench, holding said throwing star-ish thing, seething as Gordon sucks the ball up and never lets it go, then maybe… uh… something. Fuck it. I lost the train.

In any case, I’m feeling like so:

1. I need not subscribe to the Insider.
2. If i get Insider, I’ll only feel nauseous, rather than, say, awesome. And how can you not feel awesome if you’re Insider? Apparently, it goes a little something like that.

Side note. Netflix users, the film Krull is available via instant view. So you can watch it in all its glory on your browser now.

@b23:
insider is a waste of time and money.

the krull weapon is called a “glaive”. krull is an awesome movie.

you shut your mouth!

Hey fellow ‘Stones fans, I want to bounce an idea off of the best Pistons blog commenters on the web, and while I’ve probably missed this debate in a previous post somewhere, it’s at least not often talked about, I don’t think.

It’s been pounded into our brains that Stuckey will start next year and that he’s our point guard of the future, but what if we/they are wrong? (Okay, not a new idea there.) I think we can agree that Ben Gordon is a better player than Stuckey this season. What if they gave Ben Gordon a chance at starting—not in place of Rip, but beside him at point guard?

Remember when everyone pegged Chauncey as merely a two-guard in a point guard’s body before he came to the Pistons, and even in his first years here? At that point in his career, not many people thought he would become the elite point guard he is today. What if everyone is wrong about Gordon in the same way?

In his last two years at UConn, Gordon averaged around 4.5 assists per game, and until last year he was listed as both a PG and a SG in fantasy leagues. With all of his off-season talk about “wanting to show his all-around game” and “looking to be a playmaker”—we all know he is one of the league’s hardest workers—I find myself hoping that Jod did it again and found more than just a lights-out shooter in Gordon. Could it be that all this talk is pointing to Gordon looking to oust not Rip at shooting guard, but Stuckey at point guard?

Our favorite “Award-winning journalist” Keith Langlois always attempts to use the point that Gordon and Rip are the two best scorers on the team to rationalize Gordon coming off the bench… but wasn’t Chauncey always our second highest scorer while he was here?

Then again, it’s 3 AM and my mind could just be fried and delusional from just wanting SOMEONE to step up as the next Chauncey Billups. Sigh…

Ben Gordon prefers to be a point guard.

spideymouse:

Actually, we just debated at very great length who should be starting at PG and who should be backup at PG:

http://www.detroitbadboys.com/archives/2009-08-23/its-contagious/

Search for ‘khandor’ and you’ll find the debate quickly enough.

On Netflix:

It is by far the best $14/month you can/will ever spend in life (drugs are more expensive). The “instant watch” feature is worth it by itself— I look at the DVD’s that come in the mail as the awesome lightsaber spoon in the bottom of my Frosted Flakes. Strangely enough, I actually just recently watched “Krull” (via instant watch). Another 80’s fantasy classic is also available for instant viewing— “Excalibur.” Easily the best movie about King Arther ever made.

While on the subject of 80’s sword/sorcery movies…

Does “Beastmaster” reign supreme? I think it does. The first “Conan” comes close, but I think the combination of ferret-friends and the “shower curtain ghouls that liquefy people” gives Beastmaster the one-up. Although… James Earl Jones killing Arnold’s amazonian lover by shooting a poison snake from a bow at like 300 yards is pretty bad ass too… see now I’m a little torn.

Torrents of TV shows on the interwebs > Netflix.

Not saying I do that personally, but I know people who do, and they say it’s great.

@brgulker

I do, and it is most definitely great. But the convenience of instantly streaming, high-quality television and movies at your every whim absolutely can’t be beat. And that’s forgetting all about the infinite selection of DVD’s that come automatically in the mail every other day. Absolutely worth the price of admission. I no longer have cable and I’ve never been happier (plus I save like $75 a month).

Joel, I’m absolutely with you on the wonders of Netflix.

How could you NOT be? It’s incredible! And they don’t even pay me for this! And I give my SN/PW to my friends for $10 each and they just abuse the system from their own computer. So technically Netflix makes ME money. Incredible.

A cooked goose for everyone! A cooked goose for everyone!

I use my xbox360 as a media pc in my living room, and if you’ve got one and it is web connected, you can watch all instant view netflix movies on it. I’ve got a few hundred movies and tv shows in queue in my living room, including MFKrull and MFExcalibur. It’s mind bendingly awesome.

Cosign on the 360 hookup. Speaking of mind-bendingly awesome, more instant queue favorites:

“A Boy and His Dog” – a young Don Johnson and a telepathic dog wander across a post-apocalyptic wasteland until found by an underground city of women that want to harvest his sperm. Yup.
“Eraserhead” – David Lynch. Come on.
“Revolver” – I don’t know why so many people hate it. Might be my favorite Guy Ritchie joint.
“Southland Tales” – end-of-the-world in LA by the guy who made Donnie Darko, starring the Rock, Stifler, Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn star, John Lovitz, etc. Ridiculous.
“12 Monkeys” – maybe Gilliam’s best.
“Omega Man” – Charleton Heston as the last man on earth in a zombie-ridden LA. Like “I Am Legend,” but good.

How’s the quality of Netflix streaming on the 360?

It’s not HD quality, is it?

@brgulker:
How’s the quality of Netflix streaming on the 360?

It’s dependent upon your connection speed. Not HD, but close enough.

MFLadyhawke

@brgulker,
Actually, we just debated at very great length who should be starting at PG and who should be backup at PG:

Thanks! It was a very long and eyeball-scratching read. As someone who watched the Pistons last year, it’s frustrating that someone would point to Will Bynum as the major cause of the team’s woes. But my question isn’t about MFWB or having a 3-guard vs. 4-guard rotation. Also, the debate wasn’t that much about who should be starting at PG—it seemed that everyone assumed that Stuckey is.

And my question is about that automatic assumption, and whether perhaps Kuester should give Ben Gordon (or even Will Bynum) a shot at earning that starting spot in camp this fall. Yes, we’re all hoping that Stuckey has developed and continues to work on the skills we saw in the playoffs his rookie year and the beginning of last year, and I really hope he proves that he can run an offense well. I just don’t think he’s proven it yet, and we shouldn’t be too narrow-minded about other possibilities.

brgulker, I noticed in that debate that you pointed to Gordon’s 80% jumpers and Rip’s 84% last year as a caution against them starting together as a backcourt. I don’t know if that’s a good argument, and I’ll point to Rip and Chauncey. In the last few years they played together, Rip shot jumpers around 75-80% of the time while Chauncey shot jumpers around 80% of the time. This shows that (1) Rip is capable of taking fewer jumpers next to a jumpshooter, and (2) having a starting backcourt that shoots many jumpers can be successful.

I’m not saying that Ben Gordon is the next Chauncey Billups, but I’m saying that he hasn’t even been given the chance to run an offense in the NBA. At UConn, Calhoun started him at point guard at times, and I’d say he was successful. He has said that he prefers to play point guard (see the link I posted above). He has been saying all off-season that he wants to display is overall game more in Detroit. I wonder if he has been pegged as not a point guard because he’s definitely a good shooter (better than Chauncey five years into his career) and he’s been playing next to Hinrich and Rose.

A knock that the media made on Chauncey early in his career was that he was more of a shooting guard in a point guard’s body—these are things that people say about Ben Gordon. Again, I’m not saying that Ben Gordon is the next Chauncey Billups, but I do want to make that point.

And as I was typing that last comment, Kevin Sawyer posted a new blog with the following quote from a Detroit News article regarding how Kuester will use Gordon (Article in italics, Sawyer in bold):

Gordon has been a prolific scorer off the bench throughout his career. He’ll likely remain in that role with the Pistons, although more facets to Gordon’s game are likely to be cultivated, such as creating offense for other teammates.

"You don’t want to pigeon-hole a player of Ben Gordon’s ability," Kuester said. Pretty clear. Kuester likes Gordon’s talent, and will have to work hard to delineate his offensive role.

I’m glad that Kuester is keeping his mind open about Gordon, and all I’ve been trying to say in my past comments is that I hope DBBers do the same. And I agree with Sawyer, that Gordon will have to work hard—we all know he works extremely hard—to prove that he can be more than just a scorer off the bench. Jod knows we’re paying him too much if that’s all he is.

spidemouse:

Gabe was the one who pointed to the jumpshooting stats, and I tend to agree.

My primary concern with BG at backup PG is his piss poor assist/TO ratio. If last year taught us anything at all, it was that efficiency at PG is vital to a successful team. None of our PG’s excel that way, least of all BG.

I’m not saying that Ben Gordon is the next Chauncey Billups, but I’m saying that he hasn’t even been given the chance to run an offense in the NBA. At UConn, Calhoun started him at point guard at times, and I’d say he was successful. He has said that he prefers to play point guard (see the link I posted above). He has been saying all off-season that he wants to display is overall game more in Detroit. I wonder if he has been pegged as not a point guard because he’s definitely a good shooter (better than Chauncey five years into his career) and he’s been playing next to Hinrich and Rose.

In theory, it could work; but I think only at times, given the assist/TO ratio I noted above. Those stats seem to indicate that he doesn’t take good care of the ball … further, it seems like he’d be a score-fist PG — and we’ve already got two of those guys in Stuckey and MFWB. I’d MUCH rather see MFWB play next to BG — BG can clear space and knock down shots from deep.