The Detroit Pistons had some time off to sit in the corner and think about their 0-3 start, having not played since Saturday. It felt like a mini-bye week for the Pistons during the same time the Detroit Lions were on their bye week. I didn't know what to do with myself but watch hockey, play a little FanDuel and stay liquidated by drinking man margs.
Let's get back to it. Up top? No? Okay. (See image.)
-- Stan Van Gundy blamed himself for fatigued players and faulty rotations. Reading the coach take blame for things when he deserves it is fine, but I have a little concern with the coach putting things on himself this early with a team that has a history of tuning out head coaches. The biggest differences here are that SVG has a track record of success and the power to give players the first bus ticket out of town, Bobby Ross style, if they tune him out. The Boourns touched on this. The Pistons should be plenty rested after three days off.
-- After Kyle Singler got destroyed on defense against the Brooklyn Nets, SVG is considering putting Josh Smith on Carmelo Anthony duty Wednesday night. That's a bad idea because Anthony will score and Smith will come down on the other end and feel compelled to try to score, too. And then this will happen:
(Thanks MrHappyMushroom and rojo578 for re-sharing this gem of suck, which fittingly has a cameo of Charlie Villanueva standing around, doing nothing.)
-- Is there such a thing as a good long-two? (No.) The Knicks are taking a lot of them, but they're making them.
-- The Knicks will be playing their second of a back-to-back on Wednesday night, the start of a three-game road trip. They lost on Tuesday when their offense stalled out. This could be promising for the Pistons.
-- DETROIT BAD BOYS PODCAST with Matt, Sean and Mike. All the beautiful people you can't see dissecting the good, the bad and the ugly of the Pistons through three games you wish you didn't see.
-- Kevin Garnett was given a sea of space between him and the closest defender on Saturday night and he got wet. The Josh Smith treatment on KG simply didn't work.
-- NBA power rankings pin the Pistons near the bottom.
-- Detroit Pistons 2014-2015 home intros. I am disappoint.
-- If you missed it, the Grand Rapids Drive roster is taking shape. They start games in 10 days on the road. You can check out their full schedule here.
AROUND THE NBA:
-- This was pretty good by the Portland Trail Blazers, except they got the year wrong:
Moda Center is trolling Cavs fans. pic.twitter.com/oBIIOv5Msm
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 5, 2014
-- Brandon Knight still doing Brandon Knight things in his fourth year in the association (while putting up 20 points on 14 shots per game and shooting 53 percent from three through four games):
-- Flip Saunders has an interesting theory: The Sam Cassell Big Balls Dance cost the Timberwolves a championship...
-- Would you pay to watch Jason Kidd play Mikhail Prokhorov one-on-one?
-- Roundup of Tuesday night's games.
Now your thoughts and layups to good stuff around the interwebz.