First of all, I think a lot of non-stat sheet stuff is valid and important. Ben Wallace was the perfect example of this (taking charges, deflections, boxing out, beating your man to the spot or the loose ball, or the fact that other teams didn’t even THINK of going inside w/ Ben on the floor). These type of things may show up in team stats somehow, but the individual rarely gets due credit on paper.

The upside/project issue: There is some truth to this as well for some players. Look at Jermaine O’neal early in his career w/ Portland. He had tons of potential, but it wasn’t fully reached until he was well into his 20s. Of course, it didn’t help that he had to fight for playing time behind Sabonis, Rasheed, and Brian Grant either. I also think Darko Milicic will be like this as well. Granted, he won’t be an all star or anywhere CLOSE to as good as the players who were taken immediately after him in the 2003 draft. He’s still only about 23 years old. I think he’ll be a decent player eventually.

As for the “limited touches” issue, that’s valid. I absolutely believe Rasheed Wallace could avg. 25 pts/game if he touched the ball on the block 30-35x a game, but Chauncey & Rip are the Pistons’ 1st options, or the Pistons go with whatever the biggest mismatch on the floor is. Consequently, since Rasheed is the 3rd or 4th option a lot of nights, he averages between 12-15 pts instead. Imagine if Rasheed was on a team like Boston, Charlotte or ATL last year who were limited on scoring options?

*PG4L takes Kevin S with the 6th overall pick of the NBA writers draft*

Congrats, funny read and well written

Kevin, I’m willing to concede that Chauncey and Rasheed may not have been great examples, but I just don’t know if I’m ready to admit that a change of scenery isn’t exactly what the doctor ordered for players on occasion. I think I may have a pair of Hornets who fit the bill. From 2005-2006 where he started in Sacto, Peja Stojakovic looked like his career was on the decline, and then all of a sudden he starts tearing it up again once he’s shipped to Indiana mid-season. His little change of scenery salvaged his contract year and he worked himself into a 5 year/$64 million deal. We’ll see how that works out when he (hopefully) finally plays some games this year. And I fully expect Peja’s new teammate Mo Pete to bounce back and recover his respectability this season, due largely to a “change of scenery”.

Anyways, I thought the practice was interesting, wasn’t too concerned about our veterans, I was mainly trying to focus in on the play of the younger players.

Amir Johnson played decent, at times it seems liked he got lost in the middle of the paint. Ive heard rumors about him being faster than Rip and i wouldnt say those rumors are far off, it seemed liked he would be flying down court on Every fastbreak oportunity. I definately see him getting alot of his points off of transition breaks and offensive tip-ins.

Rodney Stuckey is an extremely fast player and looks like he will be able to play the 1 very well. Didn’t see him take too many jumpers but he definatelly knows how to draw contact when driving to lane. Evidence to all the freethrows he shot. Also, it seemed like Lidnsey HAS adopted the role of being a player/teacher to him, i seen a number of occasions where he pulled Stuckey over giving him a peice of him veteran knowledge.

Aaron Afflalo has a beautiful shot, he knocked down some nice 3s and also seen him being moved around on defense to guard the Point and Shooting Guard.

Cheikh Samb was impressive, i could definately see him playing in the NBA if he can pick UP his WEIGHT!

Javris Hayes and Nazr Mohammad surprisingly played pretty good.

Flip Murray on the other hand…not so much.

Flip Saunders actually was coaching, thought that was impressive also…lol

I’m not an expert analysis but those are somethings that stuck out to me while watching the practice. Might of actually done alot more analysising on the players if i knew i was going to be the only one going to the Open Practice.

Diablo, I am also interested in hearing your thoughts on the open practice. However, as a self-admitted, anal retentive, apostrophe usage stickler, I’ve got to let you know that your apostrophe is grossly misused. Correctly used, it would look like: Pistons’. Not at all trying to be an ass, just something that drives me nuts.

I thought it was pretty good