The Pistons and Rockets meet up for the second time in 12 days — here’s to hoping this one has a better ending. Check out my thoughts on the game at HOOPSWORLD, and as usual, leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Does “We are going to bust their butts next time, they aren’t going to have Dick (Bavetta, referee) and those cats to help them.” count as a Guaran-Sheed??
I’ve gotta say no. Generally if Sheed is going to say something stupid like that he makes it ABUNDANTLY clear that he really means it. I figure he was just pissed that the game was officiated so poorly (and frankly deflecting a little bit of the blame for clanking that 3 at the end).
Either way even if he DOESN’T say it, I will…. assuming the Pistons show up, I can’t see them losing this game. Houston has for the most part looked BRUTAL all month, with or without T-Mac.
i wanna see some of D on T-Mac cause he went off on us the other time
“Oh Mr Wallace, I LOVE IT WHEN YOU MAKE IT RAIN BABY!”
nice long ball
Saved by the TV timeout, that was a little bit of an embarassing run for Houston.
Stuckey just checked in
I bet the plan is to bring Stuckey in whenever they’re in the bonus. Damn I wish I could see the game.
Everytime I watch max play I thank Joe D for not resigning ben. Funny same thing happens when I watch ben play.
Got stuck at work late and missed the first half.
nice pass sheed
Dyess slashin to the basket
Sheed pulled the chair on Yao, show em how it’s done.
Well I know basketball is a game of “exchanged runs”, and we just went on one but……. jeeze is this game looking barely competative all of a sudden.
(Which of course means T-Mac is now going to score the next 11 points to make me look like an idiot….. seriously though this isn’t looking like its going to be close by halfway through the fourth).
Beating them up like the bad boys, both McGrady and Yao are in the locker room.
At this rate there should be plenty of time for the rooks in the 4th.
Baby eater in the game and the mic just picked up someone heckling Luther Head like he KNOWS the guy……damn I love Dee-troit Basket-ball!
maxiel looks so good tonight
Jason: Couldn’t have said it better myself regarding your earlier post about Ben. I was thinking the same thing last night when Ben put up a banal 0 points (on 0-4 from the field), 5 boards, 4 assists, one steal and three blocks at home against these same Rockets. Brezec can put up a much more rounded out game than that in 28 minutes of burn any day of the week. Paxson must feel like a jackass knowing it’s going to take some savvy maneuvering to re-sign Gordon and Deng and that they’re going to have to let Duhon go for nothing unless they can come up with something extra clever.
AMIR says get that shit out of here
LB… You are so right. I just don’t understand the Bulls. At the time the deal only kind of looked bad. But then they go and draft Noah… Not to mention passing up Gasol, Garnett, etc. Talk about compounding a mistake. They need someone who can score inside. I think they should make a big move soon. Could you imagine if they had KG?
Imagine if the Bulls had drafted (and kept) LaMarcus Aldridge. And then traded Luol Deng since Nocioni’s just as good. That would be a good team.
pistons look great. somehow missed the 1st half-had the start time wrong in my head and compounded by being on west coast.
love the block on motumbo and maxiell’s prowess
Jason, Darshan is 100% right about Aldridge. They blew it by not holding onto LaMarcus. I dunno about Nocioni being just as good as Deng, but Deng had (has?) huge trade value and probably would be worth parting with rather than giving him the longterm 8-figure/year deal he might command this offseason.
Tyrus Thomas doesn’t look like he’s going to be that consistent inside scorer, but LaMarcus is an absolute animal. He’s just flourishing while Tyrus is struggling mightily. Kevin Pritchard is doing a great job over there, Oden is just cherries on top if he ever gets healthy and plays well in future seasons.
The only good thing Paxson has on his side with the Ben deal, is he might be able to shed it in the summer of 2009 if some team needs an huge expiring contract. But to this day, I have no idea why they handcuffed their salary structure for the past two and at least the next two offseasons for a guy whose averages went down solidly in his contract year. Bad business.
Ben Wallace’s signing, like many in the NBA, was the product of an imaginary pissing match between John Paxson and Joe Dumars. Dumars is content to step back and watch the wannabe big boys piddle on their own shoes.
QuickDarshan - Good stuff about putting Stuckey in when the Pistons are in the bonus. I hadn’t thought of that strategy before but it makes a lot of sense to put a slasher in when your team in in bonus.
“I hadn’t thought of that strategy before but it makes a lot of sense to put a slasher in when your team in in bonus.”
Can I ask why? Slashers get fouled in the act of shooting, typically.
This team seems to be rolling better this year than it did a couple years ago when they went on that blazing hot start to the season.
BTW I really need a tshirt with Tayshaaldo on it with his hands in the air after called for a foul/he thinks he got fouled. Cracks me up every time he does it, which is 3-4 times a game.
I also worked on the trade machine last night and really couldnt find much that seemed like it would have a realistic chance of happening. Assuming JoeD wants to move some of our extra pieces for a bigger piece. Especially considering we already moved a pretty reliable big in Nazr. So it seems the most likely scenarios would be 1)stand pat 2)trade for pick/s 3)make room for CWebb 4)major move i.e. something like Sheed for Amare (option 4 would be least likely to happen IMO). Barring injuries we seem pretty well set-up at our backup positions. Knock on wood.
Also would like to see Hermann dress and get some PT instead of Brezec. Fabio has me more intrigued.
kevin s. - my take on putting a slashing PG like Stuckey in the game when you are in the bonus is defenses are coached not to foul in the bonus to give up 2 FTs so there would be more room for a player like Stuckey to drive and dish and/or drive it all the way to the glass. It’s not so much about getting fouled as getting room and MAYBE getting fouled while driving to pass, not shoot. But maybe QuickDarshan can explain it better….
Fel - the best deal I’ve come up with so far on RealGM is Brezec, Herrmann, and Flip Murray to Seattle for Kurt Thomas. All the salaries are up after this season but I can see Seattle preferring to bring in players who can compete for jobs rather than have the veteran big man and Detroit can use another big who plays great D with the likes of Garnett and Dwight Howard now in front of them in the playoffs.
Question for MattW or anyone else-
Whats the status of Fourth Quarter Slaughter? I didnt see him dressed on the bench. Did I just miss him? (not that i would “miss” him, bob). No excuse not to have a jacket during a home game or maybe he was taking Samb out for some grub?
Fel,
I heard he was on a date with Chris Webber, discussing how to ruin our bench development and divide the DBB community.
I kid!
Noooo
U-N-I-T-Y!
U-N-I-T-Y!
@Joe3 - Hmmm thats not bad. Thomas played pretty good last year in the Suns/Spurs series I thought. It would give us some veteran size and I imagine Thomas wouldnt mind sitting on the Pistons bench with a chance at a title instead of going nowhere in Seatle. Maybe the question is how much does JoeD likes Brezec and Hermann. Of course he could always move them now and bring one or both back later, like hes done with Lindsey and Dupree.
It’s barely 10:30 out here in LA and Christmas just got a lot sweeter … I guess the Bulls are packing it in for the season already:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApQAnJZB2dfQBTSGeRWhzsI5nYcB?slug=txbullsskiles&prov=st&type=lgns
Why fire a guy after 25 games whose team is notorious for slow starts? That’s dumb. He’s one of the more valuable parts of that organization in my view. I got this one backfiring big time on the Bulls. He was kind of in that fiery, Larry Brown defense mode, grind it out coach. That fit the Bulls perfectly and they hadn’t gotten to the point where they earned the right to be “tired” of him much like the Stones vis-a-vis Larry Brown. Does Paxson really think they need an overhaul that badly? Well, I mean they do, but he’s the one they need to overhaul, not Skiles. Anyone willing to chime in on Christmas Eve? Come on, you got nothing else to do, right?
they looked good im excited 20-7
LawyerBoy - It’s easier to fire the coach than rework half your roster. If Skiles lost younger players to the point where they weren’t performing then their asset value decreases. You can’t have that as a GM so you fire the coach.
Merry Christmas, Scott Skiles.
Skiles caught a bad break there. If only the Bulls could get up for playing the rest of the schedule like they do playing Detroit.
There’s been some excellent discussion here and in other threads about Paxson’s (questionable) GM skills, and Dumars basically outmaneuvering him, or letting Pax outmaneuver himself, re the Big Ben signing. When David Stern passes an edict that Dumars should be banned from trading with Michael Jordan, he might want to throw in a clause or two regarding Pax. I mean, Skiles wasn’t the guy who signed a past his prime center who doesn’t even play the 4Q anymore to $18M/yr.
As for Skiles, he’s got a lot of intensity and the players may tune him out quicker than other coaches. Players will always blame the coach when they’re losing, but I think Pax pulled the plug way too quickly here. It will be interesting who will be the replacement. That being said, I like Skiles as a coach, and think he won’t be unemployed too long.
Merry Christmas to everyone
I really do not think Dumars outmaneuvered Paxton re Ben Wallace. Why? Because Dumars had not plan b for not signing Ben and we got stuck with a very hasty replacement in Nazr
Dumars made Ben what was an extremely fair offer and Ben did not take it.
There was an article about Dumars and Karma in the press where Dumars says do the right thing have good Karma and good things will happen to you. Well with Ben it worked out well for Dumars and the Pistons.
Nazr’s playing well for the Bobcats. I’m glad we could find him a home. It wasn’t with us for whatever reason.
Although this is off topic… I don’t get why some people don’t want Chris Webber on the Pistons. Last year he was good enough to be our starting center and this years he’s not good enough to be on our team?!? When playoffs come around, would you rather have Brezec, Amir, or CW playing 10 minutes? Granted his D is suspect, but the man knows basketball. Btw, I’m a Spartan… so there’s no homer-isms going on here. He can contribute. if we can’t get rid of Flip Murray by the trade deadline, then buy his contract out and pick up Webber, that’s my take.
Not gonna do it…. nope, not gonna touch that topic.
Merry Christmas Pistonsland!
Apparently, Mark Stein reads DBB…and listens lol. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=3167996
Personally, I think this move only helps out the Pistons. Skiles seemed to make the Bulls over-achieve and play the same type of grind it out stlye that Larry Brown helped instill in Detroit. That’s not to say that they ever executed as well or had the roster the Pistons have, but they did seem to be improving the last few years and defintely have shown flashes of potential, especially against Detroit over the last few regular season meetings. Unfortunately for Bulls fans, this team is too young to absorb a coaching change without it coming at the cost of regular season games. Who knows though, maybe this team just really wasn’t meant to be. Honestly, I’ve never understood the expectations of greatness Chicago fans have held for Kirk Hinrich over the past couple of seasons. Ben Gordon is a streaky shooter that usually seems to pick up quick fouls in important games, and Big Ben left the team that suited his strongest abilities perfectly (I’ll quickyl admit I want Ben back and always will, that was my favorite starting five ever). All in all, I see the Bulls continuing to struggle for a while. Making the playoffs will now be thier struggle, a concept that will be hard to swallow for most of their players. I could care less if they seem to be turning it around for ten to twenty games, this team just ain’t got it.
DAMN! YOU GOTTA LOVE BEING A PISTONS FAN!
I know that I dont post too much here, so I’m going to add a little bit. I’m from Austin and bc of other peoples choices I ended up in Lubbock going to Texas Tech. It’s pretty hard to follow the Pistons.
With that explained, I got accepted today into Michigan Law School! Plenty of games in person to come! (Without having to sit in the middle of Spurs fans)
Lucas, you won’t be seeing too many games in person as a 1L, trust me. You won’t have the time. But congratulations on your acceptance anyway, you must be one pretty sharp young man.
Whoa…I could totally see the Bulls hiring Rick Carlisle and becoming the Chicago Pistons. In all honesty he would be a good hire imo.
I think there are slow starts and then there are will we even make the playoffs?/maybe we should blow this team up type starts. Chicagos start was more of the latter imo. Seems like you can spread the blame pretty easily…Players not able to play under all the trade/contract speculation…a coach intense to the point of obnoxiousness…and a gm that seems scared to make a move to make his team better.
I would blame the GM. Get some balls and make a move. I mean do any Bulls fans honestly think they can win a championship with this team as its currently constructed? Past nine championships all had great big men, Shaq, Duncan, Sheed.
Waitaminute…this is Chicago Im talking about…the worse they do the better hehe
Merry Christmas everyone
Does anyone else wonder why Jarvis continues to get consistent tick? He plays like he thinks he’s still in DC. He’s got a decent stroke when he’s got time to set up, but most games I find myself screaming at the t.v. because he just hoisted an atrocious turn around. Let’s give Fabio a chance. At the very least, benching Jarvis for a couple weeks and letting Fabio get some reps might send a message that it’s no ok to take multiple horrible shots in one game. I don’t understand Flip Saunders sometimes.
I wonder if they’ll hire VanGremlin…
Lucas
Congratulations - but to compete as a one l at UofM you won’t even have time to read about the Pistons let alone watch the game. Good luck and if you have time buy yourself a copy of ONE L by Scott Turrow