Brandon Knight cometh, Pistons plummet in home opener vs. Cavs, 105-89

“What is his job as a starter? Isn’t he supposed to be a scorer? Why does he get away with doing so little all these years?”

Who said anything about him being a scorer? I’m absolutely positive he brought back soley because he averages a quadruple-double in “veteran leadership”.

and there is only two people on this team worth any money

“Open your fuckin’ eyes man” – Havoc, Mobb Deep, 1993

*dreaming

If Knight can prove himself as a consistent 3 point threat and a kickout option for Moose than my God do we have a couple of nice looking pieces. I know that maybe I’m a bit too high on Knight after only one really good NBA game, but I’ve been high on him for a while now and I’m getting a bit excited for the future.

But if JOD screws up this draft than I’m gonna punch a baby.

And it’s nice that Ben Gordon played like we pay him too. I don’t know how many minutes he played alongside Knight but if there is some sorta connection there then lets run with it.

He was unreal around the rim last year and was a useless 32-136 (24%) from everywhere else on the floor. Through two games this year: 45% around the rim and 50% from everywhere else including 2-4 from 16-23 feet where he was 7-38 (19%) last year.

It’s already clear he’s improved his shot, so if we can assume he’s just had a couple bad games around the rim for whatever reason, and we can expect that to improve, he could be a legit 20ppg threat. (20 and 8!)

Good to hear. I find that much more encouraging than 23 points.

but I really like, Gulks, that you’d rightly call Knight “fantastic”, despite being on record as being dubious about the pick. It’s so easy for all of us to want to be right all the time and I could see the temptation to dismiss it as a fluke or emphasize something he didn’t do right.

Obviously, this great game doesn’t mean anything more or less than an awful game. But props for calling what was.

We’re a draft and a trade away from being a good team

another draft or two and we are a contending team again

You must be smoking the new rainbow and butterfly weed. Pass that shit dog!

Knight had the shooting night of his life and BG finally woke up from his coma and we still got waxed by 20 to the Cavs in our home opener. Contending is a very long ways and multiple legit bigs from where we’re at.

is positive.

Our big rotation has a lot of problems, and frankly Tay shouldn’t be here, but Knight and Gordon looked really fucking good. If Moose had someone help him box out then he would have had a really big night as well

but this is why I’m glad I’m a Steelers fan. They get the draft right every year and it’s amazing to have that kind of consistency as a franchise (which has obviously put them in contention the last two decades). Draft well and you don’t have to overspend on crappy free agents or keep declining, old players when you have younger guys ready to take over.

Then there’s Amir Johnson, starting the season white hot doing precisely what Detroit needs so sorely. Blocking shots, rebounding, being a defensive force in the paint. Yeah, he’s still a foul machine and always will be, but dude did last season what Pistons fans were so excited about. He played high rotation minutes and was Toronto’s most effective player.

What’d we give him away for again? A handjob?

Just look at his commentary after the games, he was still talking about turnovers being an issue when he really only had 1 of one his own. I think he’ll figure out how to help out with rebounding with due time.

I’d like his floater to get a little more ark on it like Gordon’s (same with his free throws), other than that I agree with Gulker that its a fabulous asset that just all point guards really should have.

Draftexpress on Knight: strong first step, good quickness with the ball, and outstanding body control on his drives to the rim.

No, I don’t think he’s going to be a “valuable” trade piece, in the sense that he’ll bring value in return. If we move Prince, it’ll either be for another ugly contract or we’ll need to include value to move him.

I don’t know how this team could function at all without them

Would you consider this team to be functioning with them? I’m not saying that to be cute, but it’s clear that this team is miserable and that it’s miserable with Tayshaun starting at the 3. It’s hard to argue that we’d be much worse without him.

we can’t afford to put JJ there with our lack of bigs.

We absolutely could— if we had spent the $55M we gave to Prince and Stuckey on available big men. Even if we went the budget route and issued a few minimum deals on low level bigs, we’d still have bodies in the rotation so that Jerebko could man the 3.

the game thread roll call (are we still doing that?)

Completely forgot about it. I’ll start doing it again Friday

We have plenty of problems in our lineup, but lets not get crazy with giving Jonas and Greg shit for the stuff above.

It takes 5 guys to rebound, or at least that’s what my high school coach told me the perimeter players need to box their men out to keep them from crashing. If the whole Cleveland team is crashing the paint and getting past our guards then Jonas and Greg are doing good.

It can’t also be Jonas and Greg’s fault that guards are hitting open threes, that is just the guards not hedging correctly. I remember seeing a play where Brandon Knight was sucked way too far into the paint trying to disrupt Monroe’s man and Sessions hitting a wide open three afterwards and chalking it up to a bad defensive mistake on his part. I doubt that is the way that Frank designed the defense to run since we are undermanned up front. Our perimeter defense sucks because our perimeter defense sucks, not because our big men aren’t big enough.

As far as pace goes, I’d imagine Stuckey, Daye, Gordon, Jerebko, and even Prince would all be good recipients of passes from Knight, but they need to actually be aggressive and want to score points. I think our lack of running come less form lack of personnel and more from residual apathy from our current personnel.

Perhaps the biggest thing to blame is time. Larry Frank had to try to turn the whole organization around in less than a month thanks to the lockout, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are plenty of bad habits still around.

it’s been two games. Might want to hold on which rookie ends up being better.

but yet here I am still being a fan.

taking the mantle from the pistons?

Its exceptionally difficult to repeat in this league if you’re not named the Lakers or Bulls and the rules of engagement for the entire league just shifted entirely. A lot has been made out of the Mavs seemingly lack of interest in retaining their core bench players and Tyson Chandler but in order to do so, look at how much they’d have had to pay them:

JJ Barea – 4 years, $19M
Tyson Chandler – 4 years, $56M
Caron Butler – 3 years, $24M
DeShawn Stevenson – 1 year, $2.5M

Of the 4 key players they lost, only Stevenson was intelligently signed and he was likely the most replaceable of the bunch. Mark Cuban seems like a pretty fucking smart dude…why spend all this money trying to chase a goal that in any year would be exceptionally difficult, let alone in the first year after a pretty significant shift in how NBA owners expect to do business with their talent and added to it the chaos that a shortened season with no pre-season, summer league, or extended free agency period creates.

If anything, I think the Mavs were one of the smartest teams in the off-season. All 3 of those guys with longer term deals were likely overpaid by their respective teams (JJ Barea on the T’Wolves for $20M when they already have Rubio and Ridnour and currently have no true SG?) If they’d paid them that kind of money, Cuban would have significantly less ability to make moves early on in the new CBA. He seems to be taking a wait and see approach before diving in.

On top of all this, Kidd and Terry are expiring contracts at the end of this season ($18.2M) and Lamar Odom is unguaranteed next year for another potential $8M in savings. At this point they’re in a pretty damn good position to either make a huge splash in free agency or absorb a major contract to re-tool before the end of this season.

They may be 0-3, but they weren’t expected to repeat anyways. Hell, most analysts don’t even have them getting past the Thunder in the Western Conference. At this point, I’d say Cuban played his cards better than any other GM/Owner out there right now.

RT @G_Monroe10: Created player!

I went with Pistons, Warriors, Clippers, Thunder, and TWOLVES

I’m making my all awesome team

PG – Rondo / Paul
SG – Harden / Afflalo
SF – Wallace / Odom
PF – Smith / Ibaka
C – Perkins / Horford

(nobody asked, i know and i don’t give a shit)

But I guess it means the synergy screenshots show up in full

In order for Ray, Pierce, and Garnett to hit their shots consistently, Rondo has to deliver the ball in the most preferable way for that player. Understanding where your players are most effective and how they like to receive the ball is hugely important to the success of a PG. Rondo obviously understands this. Hell, the difference in delivering a ball directly to a guys hands vs. delivering it 6 inches below can mean the difference between a mostly uncontested shot and a blocked shot in today’s NBA.

(still-waking-up-from-12-hour-Ohio-to-Massachusetts-drive reply fail)