The Pistons are in Los Angeles facing the Lakers tonight, and earlier today Kurt from Forum Blue and Gold asked me a few questions about the Pistons earlier today for his readers. I obliged, and as you’ll read below, he made time to do the same for us …
Matt: There was a silly rumor floating around Detroit that Kobe Bryant vetoed a trade to the Pistons earlier this week. It’s since been dismissed, but as a fan, is there a hypothetical package of Pistons that you would pull the trigger on?
Kurt: Is there one I, trying to channel Mitch Kupchak, would pull a trigger on? Sure, if you gutted your team (say, for example, the deal rumored of Prince, Hamilton, Johnson plus a first rounder and then throw in Stucky and Maxiell, and I’d still have to think about that. Then, how many contracts to I have to buy out as the Lakers, with 14 guaranteed deals right now, to make that work?). The real problem with any deal for Kobe is he has that no trade clause and he wants to go to a contender — he wants to be traded but not to gut the team he’s going to. To butcher a cliché, Kobe wants his cake and to eat it too, but the Lakers want someone to pay for that second cake. And whether it is the Bulls or the Pistons or anyone else, the fair market price (or even something close to it) for Kobe guts the team he is going to, not really improving his current situation. Plus, the fact he went on the “Summer of our Discontent” radio tour weakened the Lakers negotiating stance. (I’m not a big Sports Guy fan, but he makes a good point — Kobe didn’t handle that same situation as well as Paul Pierce.)
On a scale of 1-100, with 1 being “hell no!” and 100 being “it’s only a matter of time,” is Kobe being traded this year?
I’d guess I’d say 33. The thing is, if Kobe looks at some of the strides the young Lakers players have made, the fact he has another borderline All-Star in Odom, the fact the fans here love him more than anywhere else, he’s going to be hard pressed to find a situation that is better once another team is gutted from any trade. The question is: Has his relationship with the front office been so poisoned it can’t be repaired? Despite what Stephen A. Smith will tell you, nobody really knows the answer to that, save Kobe. And maybe even his position could change.
There is no one bad guy in this situation, no black and white answers. Just a lot of people in shades of gray.
Andrew Bynum: better than Jason Kidd?
Today, no. Two or three years from now? Yes. And this is the source of Kobe’s frustration — is the front office building for now or three years from now? There are four guys who speak for the franchise — owner Jerry Buss, his son Jim Buss, Mitch Kupchak and Phil Jackson — and there is clearly a Shakespearian power struggle going on up there. They say they all talk and are on the same page, then with the next sentence contradict each other. And there just seems to be no clear plan for where to take this team — why sign Vladamir Radmanovic to a five-year deal then give Brian Cook (a poor man’s Radmanovic with the same skill set but not as polished) an extension?
Now, to be fair to your question, Andrew Bynum has taken a big step forward this season and you’ll see that tonight. He leads the league in rebound rate, is grabbing 17.3 rebounds per 40 minutes and is shooting 57.1%. His PER is 23.36, second best on the team to Kobe. He worked very hard this off-season to improve his conditioning (dropped the baby fat and put on muscle) and that is emblematic of his good work ethic. This kid is not going to be a Shaq or Greg Oden (if Oden is what we all think), but he can be a very good center. I think the best description is (for your older fans) a Brad Daugherty when healthy. That is hard to come by and can be a key part of a championship team with the right other pieces. There are a lot fewer people on the “trade Bynum” bandwagon today then there were six weeks ago.
The Lakers have a of history snatching up former Pistons point guards, from Lindsey Hunter to Chucky Atkins to Smush Parker. What’s the over/under for how long until Flip Murray is starting for L.A.?
No, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Actually, PG is the place the Lakers are most set. Fisher is a solid veteran, but Jordan Farmar is a young, smart player who is a gym rat — he got a lot better and his shot more smooth this off-season. And behind him is the more talented but raw Javaris Crittenton. The future seems set there, so hopefully no more Smush Parkers to set us back. Then again, read the last question about the front office again…..
Thanks again to Kurt for taking time, especially considering he gave me much more time to respond than I gave him. As usual, leave your thoughts about the game in the comments — yes, it’s another late one (10pm), but it’s a Friday and you worked hard this week, you deserve this. Plus, for everyone out of town, this one’s on ESPN.
I just flipped onto the Boston/Miami game and Dwyane Wade was shooting some free throws. Then he got away with an offensive foul while doing a spin move and pushing off with his off-arm. Dwyane Wade is back, baby! I love this game!
With this many fouls early, Amir should get some decent minutes.
That was a BS call against Prince.
Nazr… eek.
While Flip has been doing well… I still hate his out of control drives.
Another bad call on Sheed.
For those who aren’t watching– Flipper got a HAIRCUT!! He didn’t chop the mullet though… Boo.
Anyone else excited for the Amir Johnson explosion tonight? He’s going to come out strong in his home town…
The problem with Flip is that he inevitably puts himself in a position to take a terrible shot. Yes he hits those bad shots more often than most, but hitting 40% on difficult shots still sucks.
Samb is in the game?!?!?
Samb in, wow.
…and he and Amir get a block on the same play.
Amir and Samb, the new twin towers! Get that weak stuff outta there, Bynum.
yeah, boy! amir and samb knock that shot outta here!
Holy crap!!!
I just saw Hunter get an assist and back to back blocks by Amir & SAMB…. all within 8 seconds!!!
Samb and Johnson are smacking the crap out of everything!
Good job by Samb so far, I’m surprised.
AND A BASELINE JUMPER!!!
DAMN! We got some nasty shot blocks goin’ on!
It’s almost like having Ben Wallace back. Scary.
That jumper was silk…
hii everyone… i just turned the game on and ummm whats going on?????
can someone give me some details please?? whyy is Samb in (i love that hes in but this early)?? whats wrong with flip(the coach)? first he had maxiel n johnson together now its jonhson and samb??
did we play that bad in the first??
thanx guys!
Block party!
Don’t send Samb to D-league, he sure looks like he can be a use to us. Him and Amir are blocking the paint damn nice for the bench.
Oh man! Crazy sequence of blocks and dunks and blocks! This is entertaining basketball because it’s pretty hectic and frenetic. Not technically sound, but fun.
wow this Samb guy MIGHT just be a pretty good player…
Key thing here is that we need to stop turning the ball over. We cut the Turnovers down and we will win this game because the Lakers are not playing that great and Kobe has been shut down…so far, (btw, Afflalo been playing some nice D on him).
Samb just pulled out the Dikembe finger.
Haha! Chauncey didn’t bring a sportcoat or a suit because he didn’t, “plan on being hurt” so he can’t sit on the bench with the rest of the guys! Weird.
Samb is bada$$, respect
Amir has a little bit of nasty in him… I like it.
Samb!!!!! Wow I Love this Kid!!!!
This is a ridiculously fun game so far… and FLIP’S PLAYING THE BENCH HEAVILY!!!
(ok go out and buy your lottery tickets)
You would think this Guy Mr. Big Shot could go but a jacket.
Samb just suplexed Odom! Best game ever!
This game is showing our full array of talent.. even though were still behind we’re playing our bench FINALLLY!!!
Hey. Can you hear that guys? I think, if you listen very quietly, that’s Ronald Dupree quietly weeping.
I’m falling in love with this Samb kid.
Wow this is just too awesome… I don’t even care if we win… ok, so I do… but this is what we have ALL been screaming for and we’re finally seeing it!
And best of all, Amir/Samb/Afflalo/hell - even Lindsey… they’re all playing pretty darn good!
Amir just picked Kobe’s pocket for those keeping score.
I think I’m getting out the Jim Beam and playing a drinking game: a shot for each block. I’m gonna get drizunk, y’all…
Mr. Monday — Ha! I got a good LOL out of that one. Poor Dupree.
Man, if we win this game it might be a watershed moment for the team and maybe, more importantly, the coaching staff.
Samb is affecting EVERYONE’S shots - this is flippin sweet!
I like Jarvis Hayes. Solid, solid addition to the team. He’s good.
love that the 14th guy on our team is schooling Bynum… who is Lakers future.
Samb is what we need. he made a few guys change their shot.
Samb = Manute Bol 3000?
Kobe: 4 pts, 1-8 FG in the 1st half
A good deal of that is thanks to Mr. Afflalo… nice job!
If the bench keeps this up, all I have to say is…
Dumars for President!
I wish Rip would stop launching 3’s and do more with the slashing and mid-range game.
I love the fact that in the 13 minutes since the Samb-Amir block party there has been roughly 30 commments. Now I know what all of you do on a Friday night. Drink up boys
Heh heh… we don’t get to see this level of awesomeness just every day! I think I will go have a beer…
Does anyone else feel like dancing? Flipper, you started with the haircut, you ended with Samb. Have my babies.
That was one of the most fun halves of Pistons basketball I’ve watched in a while. Hurry up, 3rd quarter! I don’t even know what the score is.
My favorite Amir moment of the year: Amir THROWS Odom to the floor getting defensive position and then never blinks (or even looks in the refs general direction) after the whistle for the foul. He just walked over to his spot on the block for the FT like its his only job to be tossing Odom to the floor every 5 minutes. Little bit of a BadBoy there.
I really hope they don’t put Samb in the D-league now. The thing we need more than anything is a shotblocker, a low post presence. Samb really impressed me, I didn’t think he was ready for the NBA. I was wrong.
Maybe I’m wrong about Flip Murray too, though he still seems to cancel out his positives from his dumb/bad plays. He’s been alright though, we are still in the game.
SHAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA MAXIELL!
LA has one less baby and no men’s stores.
Maxiell just crushed one on Kobe.
Hey, does anyone know if Kwame Brown is still in the league?
Oh wait, there he is walking around on the court.
Here we go, here we go… get the offense flowing.
Amir gets his 3rd.
Its wird. We start the game and LA looks very solid… now we look like we’re just playing with them… with our backups.
Kobe 1-10 FG vs Pistons so far. Who wants Kobe?
Why doesn’t Rasheed ever jump to try and block shots from little guys who get past Rip or Flip? Game after game I always see him stand there while guards blow by him for layups. Is he afraid of fouling them?
ahhh i just lost the channel!! anyone know how i can watch it online??? pleaseeeeeee
Tech on Rip now…
horseshit call.
SOPCast channel 14249.
link please?
AMIR JOHNSON IS INSANE!!!! Now if he’d show us some offense!
AMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR!
AFLAAAAALLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Nice basket by Afflalo.
Amir Johnson has 4 blocks and two tackles of Lamar Odom.
i’m just having fun… this is great. finally, flip has to play the kids =)
Wow, Amir just D’ed up the entire Lakers team on one play. The Pistons bench is going crazy!
lol… nice one joe
what did amir n afflalo do??
Amir had a monster block and some great D and then Afflalo hit a jumper at the other end … all in a span of 15 seconds or so.
niceeeee..
i live in canada and my satelite got zapped.
thx for the updates!!
I’m glad I have no life and stayed up to watch this!
Amir’s D is just awesome.
This is the greatest piston game I’ve seen in the LONGEST time
This is old skool Detroit D. With a k.
What a great game to have on national tv for a change too… we seem to find a way to suck a lot of the time when we’re on ESPN/ABC/TNT.
Coming out party for Samb, somewhat for Amir, and block party all around!
Too bad Jmax is in foul trouble.
Timeout. Put some vets in.
Continues to struggle from the line my ass…. he is 5-6.
I hate ESPN… “Maxiell continues to struggle from the line, shooting 55%”
While he is 5-6 on FTs for the night.
Arg.
We are starting to get lost out there.
yay channel back!
timeout indeed.
why does it say that Amir got a T?
Argggggggggggggggggg.
This is where we need Billups.
Murray is killing us.
ughh why is there no concentration????
in game adjustments!!!!!
That was an ugly 2 minutes.
Wow. Mo Evans just dunked all over Rip Hamilton’s new baby and made him like it. That was vicious.
And that was some ugly ball-handling.
HOLD ON TO THE DAMN BALL!
Lindsey Friggin’ Hunter.
Best way to beat Jordan Farmar’s half-court press is to have your big man set a bone-rattling screen on him.
i cant stand espn
keep this lineup
Such terrible FT shooting… 7-8 on the night for Mad Max.
Wow, Maxiell is really sucking it up at the line. 7-8.
jmax still struggling from the line, another 2/2.
all national commentators suck. except bill walton.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!
BS call on Prince
Bynum looking like Webber on that…. damn.
I feel so much better when the offense runs through Tay.
GODDAMN OFFICIAL!
You have to be kidding me…
off the ref, come on..
we lost
That ref tip may have been the game….
Ok just put all the rookies back in there right now… let’s see what they can do.
Gotta hand it to LA; they’re playing gutsy ball.
refs threw the game. that was a 3 pronged dagger!
oh well, still its a solid, successful road trip.
Jordan Farmar looks pretty good for LA. It sucks having Chauncey (and Stuckey) out..
Kobe’s still Kobe when it counts… damn it
Princess Kobe doesn’t belong in Detroit, period.
And that is it…. we played relatively well without 2 starters up until that short stretch where we crapped the bed.
Oh don’t get me wrong, he’s a cancer.
He can just shoot the rock, that’s all.
Man, that’s some hot Laker shooting. And I still say Kobe is the best player on the planet (sorry KG!) even though his shooting was pretty cold tonight.
And Kobe plays great D. LA played great D, and got hot at the right time. I’ve got no complaints about our team, and we got great bench minutes.
Ok well let’s just pretend the 4th never happened because the rest of the game was the most fun we’ve had all year.
This is a good sign of things to come, though. We’re gonna be a DEEP team come April.
Well, first time this year I’m not pissed at Flip. He played the young guys. That’s important because they have to feel like this is their team too. We’ll need them in the playoffs.
So. Question, DBBers. Who is the deepest team in the league?
It was an entertaining game.
I’d like to see more offense run through Tayshaun and Rip with Afflalo on the floor instead of 40+ minutes of Flip Murray but I can’t complain too much. Nothing against Flip Murray who has done a great job with Chauncey out but you can’t play that many minutes and not get exposed in the NBA. I’m very optimistic about the front line and pragmatic about the guards - with Chauncey and Stuckey out it’s going to be a bumpy road in the first few weeks of the season.
I think there will be some inconsistency in the first half of the season and then I really see the Pistons getting good when this team gets comfortable with all the new pieces.
Agreed Brad, we gave our bench some good development time. Even though it was a loss, it was a good loss for the bench.
Once we get Billups, McDyess, and Stuckey back we will be setup nice. Samb looks like we should keep him here for now, especially against big teams.
“Who is the deepest team in the league?”
San Antonio. They can play Ginobli at PG if Parker is hurt, have two All-star scorers if they are both healthy, have decent bigs (Oberto, Elson), two decent G/Fs (Finley, Barry), two SFs (Bowen, Udoka) and a steady backup PG (Vaughn). That’s not bad. And some guy named Duncan.
Trick question, JoeJoeJoe. The answer was the Pistons.
“Samb really impressed me, I didn’t think he was ready for the NBA. I was wrong.”
I was wrong, also. The guy made big plays and contested every shot while he was playing. He made such a big impact, when Kobe made attempts to drive to the hoop, Kobe was automatically passing it out to the perimeter. NOW LISTEN, im NOT saying that we should play him 25-40 minutes a night because i still think he needs alot more work. You start playing him a ton of minutes i think teams will find ways to expose him. I think we should sneak him in the rotation every-now-and-than for him to be VERY effective(for now), kind of like how Maxiell played for us the previous years before this year.
On a side note: I would like to say Nazr days MIGHT be numbered. I was very impressed by him in the summer but it seems all of a sudden he has became really irrelevant again. I seen him play in the first half and he struggled and then he was no where to be found in the second. Instead we had guys like Amir and Samb doing the job he was suppose to bring to the team. Feel free to disagree but thats what i have noticed.
Also, Chauncey or Stuckey would of been nice at the end of the game. Like i stated after the first quarter, in order for us to win we will need to cut down on our turnovers.
I live in LA and was enjoying the game at the bar. Not really caring if we won because it was fun watching our pre-season lineup play even with the Laker starters.
Then, some annoying, casual (are there any other kind?) Laker fans started playing pool behind me. They cheered and whooped it up as the Lakers started to pull away. This coupled with some of the Laker players (Mo Evans, in particular) jumping around like they were about to sweep the NBA Finals just got my blood boiling.
I wanted to scream, “You’re barely beating a team that’s playing the 15th guy on their roster and their third and fourth string Point Guards!”
It would have been a great win, but regardless, our bench acquitted itself quite nicely (and without Stuckey).
All I heard from people in the arena tonight was “14 championships” and “any team can make the conference finals in the weak East.” Lakers fans on a general scale, are pretty much lame. They live in the past when they were a proud franchise. Now they’re a joke and if it weren’t for the Knicks they’d be the biggest joke of a franchise in the NBA. I did not see a single Laker fan wearing a jersey of any other current Laker than Kobe (I did see a sweet Rambis jersey though). Go figure. They call themselves fans of the Lakers SQUAD yet they support the guy who was stupid enough to push away Shaq when he still had game left. He complains every chance he gets about the ineptitude of the management and THEN has the gall on top of that to publically ask for a trade. Kobe is the man during the course of the game, but what a scumbag he is.
It wasn’t a great experience to be in Staples tonight, but at least we (I’d say all or almost all of us here on DBB) got what we’ve been clamoring for the past couple years: Flip giving the bench meaningful minutes. I must’ve said 5 times tonight that Mo Evans is my favorite Lakers player only for the fact that we cast him off to get Samb. He looked NBA ready on defense despite the one possession where Lamar ball faked him out of his shoes on that one dunk. Everything else Samb did was solid or impressive. Amir didn’t do anything that particularly impressed me, but he held his own. Sign Jarvis Hayes to an extension RIGHT NOW.
The refereeing was horrible from the outset. Lakers ate hearty on home cooking last night. Their team has hustle and some solid role players, with Odom having one of his “on” games. But they won because we had no point guard.
Some of us have been touting Samb for two years. This isn’t a fluke.
After looking at the box score, I noticed Ron Garretson was one of the referees. I hate to sound like I’m making excuses, because we did NOT play winning basketball last night, but remember how well we did in games he reffed during the 2005 playoffs?
Fun to watch Johnson and Samb make an impact. That’s an interesting look when teams are beating us inside. Not sure I would have pulled the hook on Maxiell, especially when we needed offense and he was providing it.
Less fun was watching Murray revert to form toward the end of the game. He was doing a good job getting to the basket and looking for teammates early on, and then went on a pretty ugly shooting spree. That said, we’re getting a good season from him, thus far. Hopefully he can sustain it in a reduced role.
Like mostly everyone else, I hate whenever the ‘Boys lose but at least the bench got some serious run. What can you say about Samb? He’s not ready for prime time but he may be ready to steal Nazr 10 mins per game. Amir didn’t show me anything on offense but played well defensively and rebounded. Amir & Samb playing together is a catch-22 because they contest every shot and block 1/2
but if they both are going for everyone block (together) that leaves the lane wide open for offensive rebounding because they end up out of position. In time they will learn timing ala Ben Wallace, AK-47 and Mourning, meaning you can’t block every single shot so don’t try to. Playing tough D is just more than blocking the shot, it also involves contesting shots and denying position and giving the guard trying to drive something to think about because you are there waiting.
I have no problem losing this game because he didn’t drain the starters (other than Murray, but who cares) and the bench got to develop some real confidence. You don’t win championships in Novemer. We weren’t going to go 82-0 anyway and if you have to lose a game, why not in November, on the West Coast (doesn’t affect divisional or conference tie breaker situations) in the midst of 4 games in 6 days with 2 starters and your main 6th man out. Jarvis Hayes is Vinnie Johnson reborn man. If Samb can do 1/2 of what he did last night on a regular basis, then he gets Nazr mins. We are going to be sooooo deep once all of our pieces are in place again. Can’t wait to see Stuckey, Afflalo, Hayes, Max, Amir (Samb) together. They young guns are going to be lethal by seasons end. Mark my words. That’s if Flip continues to coach like last night. I think Boston beats us today but we’ll smash them come playoff time. They do look daaaaaaaaaamn good though.
I can picture Flip Murray logging on this morning to check out the comments from DBB, only to have a solitary tear roll down his cheek as he whispers, “Won’t anything please them?”
He didn’t play horribly last night Garrett, but those damn out of control drives are wack. I must admit, Chauncey does know how to quarterback and control a game. Flip’s stats may be good on a given nigh but he doesn’t control the game like Chauncey. I wish someone would tell him he’s not Iverson with that damn crossover. Iverson doesn’t lose the ball on his crossover move 1/2 the time and then get to the hole and lose the ball there the other 1/2 the darn time. He just plays out of control. Chauncey could have his same exact stats 15 pts, 6 asst but have a much much much greater impact on the game. I guess I’m admitting I’ve underestimated Chauncey’s slow footed ass. Defensively that is. He gets blown by as much as a sky scraper in Chicago.
Not only is Flip giving the bench a shot, they are earning it…
Afflalo played good defense and always seems to know where to go on offense.
Jarvis is such a huge upgrade of Delfino and Mo Evans (who is now on my shit list for his little dance after going over Rip’s back)
Man, my hopes for Samb just doubled. Before I was just hoping he would eventually develop (in two years) into a 6-12 minute/game backup center. I still think we should send him to the D-League though.
Would have like to have seen Maxiell go at Brian Cook. He would have destroyed him.
Flip looked gassed at the end of the game.
Amir doesn’t blow me away like he does everyone else but he’s got a good +/- these last two games.
Lindsay looked rusty.
I’m a Nazr defender but our biggest needs are a shot-blocker and a rebounder. Amir can provide the former although he still needs to work on the latter (he gave up position way too many times).
I agree QD, Amir didn’t blow me away but he impressed me. Although Samb did blow me away because I had zero expectations of him. I just don’t see the KG Jr. in Amir everyone else sees (admitting this was my 1st time seeing him play). Hopefully everyone is right though. Because of wack camera angles, I was never able to truly compare his height to anyone else on the floor. Did anyone ever clearly see Amir stand straight up next to another player who’s height we know, in order to make a comparison? Samb is definately over 7 feet though. That’s kid’s a skyscraper and he didn’t look malnurished to me. He could bulk up a little but previous reports I’ve seen on DBB made him still sound Tay thin. But he didn’t look ‘extremely’ thin to me.
i would like somebody (hint hint, matt) to dig up some +/- stats on the lakers game. i went and it seemed to me that saunders made some horrible substitutions in the 4th. specifically putting in lindsay and not keeping amir in instead of max. cheick played great. aside from the actual blocks, i think he scared the s— out of a lot of jump shooters last night as he came running at them.
from the get-go though, we seemed like we were barely hanging on. kobe hadn’t done anything through the 3rd and we were leading by 2. it was just a matter of time. and once the refs get into both rip and sheed’s head, without chauncey around to pick up the slack, we are dead in the water. those two should know better especially last night. there was nobody else to shepherd the flock. completely selfish, a-hole behavior.
Here are the Pistons first 5 possessions coming out of the timeout with 8:33 left in the 4th Q with the score tied 72-72.
FG, TO, TO, TO, TO
Do that on the road and you’re going to lose 9 times out of ten.
As for +/- scores Amir Johnson was +9, Afflalo +4, and Maxiell was -23.
http://www.nba.com/games/20071116/DETLAL/boxscore.html
My guess is Maxiell is less effective against taller, faster lineups due to issues involving court vision and peremiter shooting and the Lakers have a ton of players that are bad matchups for Max (Vlad Rad, Odom, Bynum) all of whom are good matchups for Amir. Afflalo has just flat earned more time with his hustle.
I’ll defend Flip Murray a bit. ANY PG would be gassed in the 4th quarter playing the minutes that Murray played and while the long term effects aren’t the same as with the starters fatigue still ended up costing the team last night.
Not that I blame him but Hunter was awful last night with 2 asts. and 3 TOs in 7 minutes. Either make the guy a coach, give him regular playing time, or cut him. Hunter is not Steve Kerr where he’s coming into the game to make a shot and can do it until he’s 40 or Mutumbo where he’s playing half court post defense and didn’t get any shorter. He’s an athletic, hard-nosed, reliable PG who needs to be playing with controlled intensity to succeed. Hunter can either ball at age 37 or he can’t. If you have 41 minutes of trust in Flip Murray but only 7 minutes of trust in Lindsey Hunter with Billups and Stuckey out maybe it’s time to put Hunter in a suit and tie as assistant coach and find somebody else to be your 4th PG.
Still, lots of long term positives in an exciting loss. I’m optimistic about this team.
E-Double: I was sitting 6 rows off the floor last night across from the Stones bench. I saw Amir standing straight up a few times during free throw situations. I even asked a Lakers fan (casual, go figure) nearby me to offer his objective take. We both independently concluded that Amir is 6′9″. I know we’ve HEARD all this 6′11″ talk, but if Bynum is legit 7′0″, then I refuse to believe Amir is 6′11″. It looked to me, at absolute BEST, that Amir was as tall as Odom (listed at 6′10), but more likely around half an inch shorter than Odom.
As for Samb, he’s usually listed at 7′1″ (sometimes 7′2″), and he looked every bit of it to me. And I agree with your assessment of his body that he didn’t look rail thin, but he didn’t look strongly built either. Like QD, I’m a Nazr defender as well, but compared to Samb, and especially Amir, he’s too immobile out there to guard guys like Bynum and Odom (whereas he could handle Kwame Brown). If it’s even a relatively athletic big man, Nazr’s overmatched. I wouldn’t mind Samb or Amir taking minutes from him in those situations.
This is sorta off-topic, but has Sheed gotten a technical yet this year? jackdutch mentioned Rip and Sheed’s behavior last night, and truth be told I didn’t see anything particularly disappointing from Sheed outside of one silly outburst that he walked away from unscathed (whereas Rip appears to me to have become emotionally destructive to the team lately), so that has me wondering if he has any Ts yet.
On a side note, Ben Wallace just made a three pointer.
l-boy, from where i was sitting, i had a decent view of the pistons bench and was watching sheed pretty closely from shootaround on. rip’s behavior was obvious, but sheed wasn’t much better. he didn’t get a tech, but i remember him getting a quick exit early and jawing the whole way off the court, and later he was arguing with ref derrick collins and chucked his warmup behind collin’s back just as hard as rip threw his mask. i think if collins had seen it, it would have been a t. both of them start pouting like children when they don’t get their way. and it just stinks up team morale.
OT: NBA All Access stole your idea for a banner on their website.
http://www.nba.com/allaccess/nbaUserProfile.jsp
jackdutch: i vividly remember the first incident you speak of and that’s what i was calling a silly outburst, but i has no idea there was a second incident involving him tossing his warmups. taking that into account now, i agree with you 100% on the accounts of both rip and sheed. we’ve come to expect these outbursts regularly from sheed, but we have not come to expect this level of frequency from rip. i wonder if something is going on with him, because i’ve found his play as a whole this year so far, rather underwhelming. either way, they ought to stop acting like little kids, and sheed alone is enough to withstand. we can’t afford to have rip turn into sheed.
Thanks LawyerBoy for the Amir height update. Six rows off the floor at Staples…you lucky son of a gun
Last year I had a chance to sit 1st row behind the scorers table here in Atlanta. The game is a whole new experience from down there. From that vantage point, any insight you want to share from the game that us watching on TV wouldn’t have caught? Anything in addition to our TV observations already mentioned? I agree, Nazr looked real bad, really really slow too. Maximus strugles against taller quick opponents and Tay struggles against guys his own size and maybe stronger: Odom, Deng, King James, etc. Totally agree that Rip is turning into Sheed Jr. and we can’t have that. Start giving Afflalo more of his mins and soon Stuckey ever time he loses it and that will send a message. He needs to be held accountable before he becomes full blow Sheed. Flip Murray is what he is. I’m not going to crap on him but I do need someone to tell him he’s not Allen Iverson with the killer crossover. Hell, he fakes himself out half the time. I need Hayes to somehow avg 20 mins a game. Even on nights when he may not shoot lights out he’ll still rebound and hustle and I love that about him. He’s one of those guys that can miss his first 10 shots and then drain a 3 right when you need it. I love him so far. Once all the pieces are in place can you imagine how effective our starters would be if they all averages more like 32 mins versus 37. I’m still excited though. I’d be totally stocked if they win tonight and finish this rough 10 game stretch at 7-3. Bless you Boys. Holla back LawyerBoy.
They have three 7 footers on the Kings, with Billups and McDyess out Amir and Nazr should get some good minutes. Samb too.
More observations from being there live? Rodney Stuckey is a hell of a dresser. His blazer Friday was a thing of absolute beauty.
Basketball related observations … I thought that Amir had very encouraging on-the-ball defense. Obviously Amir is a 20 year old kid who needs lot of seasoning and work, but I remember him D’ing up somebody tight on the 3 point line and he was sticking hands in the face and making it very uncomfortable for whichever Laker it was. For a big to have that kind of instinct, to me it signals he was coached well somewhere along the way and/or he has confidence that he doesn’t have to give up ground to prevent getting beat to the hoop on a drive.
If Samb comes along over the next couple of years in a manner similar to the way Maxiell has, I think he can be something useful, possibly something special. I disagree with Darshan that we should send him to the NBDL. I think he can benefit (and the team can benefit) more from and is capable of withstanding NBA burn if we ease him in like we did Friday. As much as I’ve tried to make Nazr a victim, he has to rely on his strengths or develop new ones if he’s going to make a case to me to get burn over Samb. While Nazr has veteran understanding, he was getting beat like he stole something by the athletic Lakers’ bigs. Samb looked lost quite a bit (as does Amir) like when Odom killed him on the ball-fake, but Samb looked unafraid. We’ll suffer from these two being young’ns if we have them both out there together, but I imagine Friday was an extenuating circumstance. Samb challenged the Lakers in the post on both sides of the ball. His touch is absolutely beautiful for any NBA player, let alone a man of his size. He has all the makings of the shot-blocking impact we had from Ben, and tons more offense in a 7′1″ package.
I could go on and on (and seemingly I already have), but I do want to note that most people here seem to have been pretty impressed by Afflalo, and I just haven’t seen it. Nothing has stuck out for me about his D, and while his jumper looks nice, it hasn’t been going down. As for Hayes getting 20 mins … I don’t care if it’s 10, 20 or 30, get the man a 3 year extension, NOW. Tonight should be just fine, it’s the injury-depleted Kings.
I’m with LawyerBoy… I don’t really get all the Afflalo love. To be honest I had no idea he was even on the court. That’s how much of an impact he had. Although if you want to look at that in a positive light, at least I wasn’t saying, “Damn you, Afflalo!” because he kept screwing up. He played and I’m sure he did some stuff, but it didn’t register with me for some reason. Maybe because I spent the whole game going, “WHERE’S AMIR?!? OKAY, WHO IS HE GUARDING NOW?!? OMG LOOK AT THAT COURT AWARENESS!” (I’m kidding. Kind of.)
The Afflalo love is based on what we’ve seen and what we can expect in the future because of it.
Afflalo is already better than Delfino was last year. He’s always in the right spot. He’s got a good stroke. He runs hard in transition which led to an AND1 in the first half (Kings game) and had a nice strong finish off a curl soon after.