Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and the rest of Team USA kick things off with a game against Venezuela tonight at 11 pm on ESPN Classic (and a replay at 1am on ESPN2, for all your third-shift readers).
As a fan, it’s kind of cool to see a couple of Pistons on the squad, but it also has me a bit worried about the potential burn-out factor next season. From my latest on Hoopsworld:
The most obvious danger is Billups or Prince coming up lame with an injury. While both players have a solid track record staying healthy, accidents do happen – just ask the Memphis Grizzlies, who were without Pau Gasol for the first 19 games of last season after breaking his foot while playing in last summer’s World Championships in Japan.
But even if Billups and Prince make it to training camp healthy, they’re not in the clear. No, then there’s still the matter of keeping them fresh for the rest of the season.
By reaching the Conference Finals the past five years in a row the Pistons have routinely had one of the shortest summers of any team in the league. It may not sound like much at first, but Detroit has played in 97 playoff games since 2003 – that’s like squeezing six seasons in five years.
What’s most worrisome is that both players have shown signs of wears in the last two playoffs — here’s to the bench finally coming through and making this a non-issue this year.
On a side note, are there any topics you want to me to tackle between now and the start of the season? I’m doing twice-weekly team reports and we’re obviously in a bit of a slow period. I have a few more ideas but I’m also open to suggestions.
Matt,
I’d love to have some in-depth reports on the rookies’ style of play in college. These may very well exist in the archives (I’m too lazy too look + trying to be somewhat productive at somepoint at work today), but I’d like to know who their best games were against, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and a general idea of how their stats compare to their college teammates’, etc. Possibly extending this to the new Piston(s) this year (is there anyone other than Hayes?) regarding his pro career would also interest me, personally. Thanks so much for your work Matt, the DBB community appreciates it.
Matt,
Having been a DBB reader for a few years now, the greatest change I’ve seen in 2007 is the development and involvement of the DBB community on this blog. Moreso than before, we’re seeing 50+ comment posts here, and I personally (as well as many others, PG4L, brad, sauce, boney, noveck, joejoejoe, gibson, etc) return several times a day to read new comments. It has grown to the point that the comments, to me, match the value of the post content.
That said, I’d suggest you open up the relationship a little bit, and let the commenters get even more involved. What do you think of having the DBB community submit story ideas to you, and upon your approval, write guest posts for DBB. You retain full editorial authority, and post what you see fit and enlightening. There are some smart, insightful, fun writers here at DBB, and I personally would love to read more of their thoughts.
So whattya think? It’d be DBB 2.0!
-mike payne-
I would like to read more about Bill Davidson. I’m outside of MI so I don’t see him much in the news but he seems like one of the best owners in sports. He’s also an unbelievably successful businessman who made billions in manufacturing which is a lot harder than timing the 90s computer boom like a Paul Allen or Mark Cuban. If you have any interesting angles on Bill Davidson I think it would be worth a few posts here at DBB.
I’m with Mike Payne. I can actually pin point the exact point at which the community stepped up and started contributing. It was the post immediately after the loss to Cleveland to end the season. There was a lot of really rational thought and discussion in that post especially considering that we just suffered a crushing loss. My fellow commenters are the ones that have me coming back 2-3 times a day. No offense, but it’s more fun to be a part of a community sort of like what goes on over at mgoblog. DBB is taking steps in that direction, if you can harness that, you might get more casual readers to get more involved.
The Pistons have been among the league’s elite road teams for the last several year, yet they have hurt themselves seeking home-team advantage. I don’t care what anyone says, Flip hasn’t played the bench enough, and that creates two problems: tired players and a lack of bench confidence and development. It’s got to stop. It’s nice to have a bunch of All-Stars, but how about players who are well-rested, or at least not bone-tired during the playoffs?
Being a playoff team is vital, having the top seed is not. Golden State beat Dallas this year. 8th seed. San Antonio was fresh and ready, and guess what? Avoid injuries, limit starting minutes, and develop the young guys for the future.
Every time the Bad Boys play, I want them to win. I get mad and a little pissy when they lose, especially games they should win. You know what the difference is between me and Flip, though? I’m a friggin’ fan. I can be shortsighted and irrational. Flip is a coach– he needs to take a loss to give his young players quality minutes and his veterans quality rest. Tayshaun doesn’t want to come out of games, and neither does Chauncey. They would probably average 38-40 minutes if someone, like a coach, for instance, didn’t pull them from the game.
Joe D. needs to get that across to Flip, if he can. If he can’t, then he needs to find a coach who can manage minutes better than Flip. Actually, he needs to find another coach regardless, because it takes a pretty dominating figure to keep the respect of certain players.
I discovered this site yesterday, and I have no idea why it took me this long. I agree with previous posters on this thread: the community of fans I’ve been hoping for is right here. I went through the archives of the loss to Cleveland, and my stomach feels just like it did that night.
I hope they’re hungry again.
I also hope that the fans in the Palace somehow start feeling and acting like they did from 2002-2005. Watching the games in the playoffs made me mad as hell. The lower bowl was sitting down, stunned looks on their faces as Lebron came at the team. You can’t tell me the Stones don’t play better defense and knock down shots with the crowd going crazy behind them, because I’ve been watching this team totally outplay other teams with effort and intensity. When the crowd is there, so is the effort. You can say that it shouldn’t matter what the crowd is doing, that the players are making money and should bring it, but when they know WHY they’re really playing, they leave it on the floor.
The Palace crowd was pathetic against Cleveland. I live in Portland, and I can’t afford to buy airfare and tickets to see the playoffs live, but I almost went to Detroit on Greyhound just to get in the faces of the lame crowds that showed up. I’m mad again, just remembering, because it’s so obvious that the Palace crowds got spoiled over the last few years. One championship is enough for the fans?
Whoa boy, absolutely I have some suggestions. You do a great job here Mr Wilson but I think it’s obvious to savy NY Times reading-ESPN Highlight watchin fans that something needs to change to bring this blog to the next level. You know, to really pull in the crowds which in turn rakes in the advertising dollars if yaknowhatumsayin bay-bee! It’s not that you aren’t doing a great job Matt, but all this technical coverage and minute attention to detail over a team like Detroit? Come on, that isn’t sexy, that isn’t “Now”… and that’s never going to get you “Chad Ford” dollars/fame/respect… I got three words for ya babeee… “More…Kobe…Bryant!” Seriously… also maybe a constantly updating “Mike Vick Dogfighting Scandle Tracker” for the top banner…..
Also could you talk a little bit more about Yi’s tremendous upside potential and maybe a couple articles on how for a scrawny white kid who cries on national TV, Andre Krilinko is Hard-MutherFing-Core? Gotta promote that international flava playa!
(Jokes aside… change nothing Matt, this place owns.)
I have another thought. Maybe during the offseason when it’s slow you can post an open thread for people to talk basketball now and then. I know people go off topic somewhat (including me) in your posts and that’s not always a good way to produce good discussion. On the other hand people share interesting details all the time in the comments. So the occasional open thread could act as a vent for random thoughts and help keep the comments in your posts/reports focused on the post itself.
Don’t read the archives after the Cleveland loss. I got embarrassingly drunk. Didn’t I write something about Krista Jahnke? Didn’t I threaten Varejao? Don’t want to relive that…
Anyway, what can you change about perfection? The best idea I’ve heard is Mike Payne’s - diversifyin’ the voices might be good.
Just don’t invite me to do it. It would get too weird.
I was actually soliciting topic ideas for future HoopsWorld articles (I see now that was awfully vague), but I actually like the direction went in …
To be honest, making this site more of a two-way conversation has been a goal of mine for a long time, especially lately — I’ve been really surprised/amazed/impressed at how many of you have made this a daily stop during what’s really been an uneventful offseason. I get an email every time someone leaves a comment, and without fail I stop what I’m doing to read it — collectively, you guys provide some of the best analysis anywhere.
So yeah, I love the idea of getting more people involved. I still have to sort out how exactly that’ll work, but it’ll definitely happen between now and the start of the season, and I’m glad that it’s something that some of you are already up for.
This is why NBA players are a very different breed than us mear mortals. I don’t think it was the reason of burn-out but rather how much Chauncey and Taychaun wanted the Championship the last few years. They’ll do fine. It is the rest of the Piston team that also want to wants it too.
Tayshaun Prince led Team USA in minutes (24) last night vs. Venezuela. I have mixed feelings about it - it’s so cool for Prince to get the most playing time on that roster but I’ll be cursing Coach Krzyflipski in the playoffs if Prince is run down. Billups played 14 minutes.
http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/fiba/boxscore?gameId=270824917
24 minutes for Tayshaun? There goes my Coach K doesn’t play Billups and Prince theory. Actually, Billups only netted 14 minutes, but if Prince keeps up a busy schedule between now and pre-season, then it looks like Hayes will be a regular rotation member to give our Palace Prince some rest.
I’d like you to literally and figuratively tackle Flip Saunders.
I wouldn’t worry about tiring out Tayshaun. He’s a young athlete. You can’t tire him out… not long term anyway.
I actually think that this will be good for Tay and Chauncey. They are gonna come back to the Palace feeling like Champions again. That’s a good feeling to have when starting a new season. It’ll also be a good feeling to spread around the rest of the locker room.
Besides… Team USA is only gonna play what? 6 Games or something?
Nobody is gonna get tired. Chauncey prolly would have played more hard minutes in his drive way this summer than he will at the FIBA.
It was mostly garbage time that Tay was playing in a blowout win. I doubt he would get that much play in a competetive game. Though IMO he should start and bring Le-Bron off the bench cause I really dont like Lebrons game of steamroll to the hoop for layups/dunks for the international game. I’d actually like to see Lebron play PG like Jason Kidd and just set guys up.
Worse thing about the games are listening to Bill Walton. Who really couldnt figure out why JoeD got more guards (Stuckey/Spellcheck)when we need frontcourt help (uh Maxiell/Amir?).
Thanks for the info, I missed the game because of work obligations. RE: Walton, though I didn’t actually see the game I’ve grown so accustomed to his half baked “observations” and on the spot (read completely made up) “analysis” that I can actually IMAGING his dopey bewildered voice saying that quote. What drives me balistic is that NOBODY calls him on being a half-cracked dottering old moron because “At one time he coulda been a basketball legend… except for his knee”… like gimme a break. If we can admitt that Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas are complete failures as basketball managers (both coaching and player aquisitions) why can’t someone grab Walton’s mic and yell “Sit down, shut up and have some oatmeal cookies you senile cracker” the next time he goes off? I mean for YEARS I wondered this about Magic Johnson too…why, not ONCE didn’t a respected journalist/broadcaster in the booth go “Damnit Magic that’s not even a word. You just made that up and that’s like the 5th made up word tonight. I REFUSE to keep working with you until you learn to speak English” and then just march off set……why didn’t this happen damnit?
I agree Bill Walton is an Idiot I have to watch the games with the volume off.
Bill Walton’s on there because he gets people stirred up. I don’t think it’s that he’s uninformed or ignorant, he just blathers without a filter.
I love Hubie Brown, but he’ll bore the hell out of the casual basketball fan (of which there are less and less, judging by TV ratings).
Oh, wait! Hit the Flip Siren! I saw it up there!
Actually, I’m not high on Flip, but it’s hilarious that he’s beaten like a pinata by Detroit fans.
Being the Pistons’ coach is like being the Lions’ starting quarterback or the Wings’ #1 goalie; you’re going to get shredded by people the instant anything goes wrong.