An unhealthy obsession with Amir Johnson is not unique to Detroit: it’s spread to the Pacific Northwest, claiming FreeDarko’s Bethlehem Shoals as a victim:
So I tuned into Pistons/Lakers last night for one reason alone: To watch Amir Johnson, who finally has his spot in the rotation. He lived up to it, looking like he belonged and regularly wowing myself and others. Dude is basically everything every tall lottery pick of the last five years wishes he could be, and all that Bynum’s got over him is a few inches and a (Kobe-inspired?) will to self-discipline.
Hyperbole? Perhaps, but it’s still fun to read (well, maybe not for all of us). But if you couldn’t tell from my title, the meat of Shoals’ post is actually about the curious Rip/Kobe dynamic:
The Rip/Kobe relationship is endlessly fascinating to yours truly. You know how, whenever you get around your parents, you act like you’re sixteen? It seems like these two All-Stars instantly revert back to their days of regional HG battles. You can see it on the court, definitely, where Rip’s defense borders on zealous, his offense has an edge to it, and that reptilian glaze is decidedly absent. And Kobe, he almost loosens up in a way that’s somewhere between foolhardy cockiness and backyard ease.
That pretty much nails it, if you ask me. Go read the whole thing; it’s not often Shoals gives the Stones the FreeDarko treatment.
OT - Someone check this out and report in…
http://www.nba.com/pistons/careerfair.html
Sounds interesting but it takes me to long to get to the palace to check it out. See what it takes to become an NBA ref..GED? some college? bipedal? I always thought it would be fun to be a scout/assistant coach.
I agree that Kobe acts differently about Rip than he does about anyone else. During the broadcast Thursday night, they showed Rip talking about wanting to be in the 3 point shooting contest, and then showed Eli Zaret talking to Kobe about it. I’ve never seen Kobe so genuinely interested and personable as he talked a little trash about how he was going to be in the contest so there was no way Rip could win.
Kobe also said that anytime Rip tells him he’s better than he is, he reminds Rip of when he dunked over him in a high school game. I really don’t know of anyone else in the league whom Kobe looks on as an actual friend besides Rip.
I usually disagree with only a few of Sauce’s thoughts, but in his linked piece on this post I have to disagree. I don’t think anyone is hyping up Amir Johnson like he’s the next Kevin Garnett, or the next superstar of the NBA. Obviously, a course in simple economics are needed when discussion of Amir’s lofty 3.6m per season contract is mentioned and how he’s the “6th highest paid Piston” on the team. Considering his age, and the following that Amir has earned after posting the numbers he posted in the D League, it was going to take money to keep him. Without being on the “inside” we only hear of rumors, and rumor had it that a full MLE was to be offered to young Amir which is over $5m a year.
What Sauce also seems to forget is that Maxiell was in the same position that Amir is in now, last year. Last year with CWebb on the roster, the rotation was Sheed, CWebb, Dyess off the bench and then Maxiell or Dale Davis according to the matchups. This year it’s Sheed, Dyess, Max off the bench and Amir. There is no dominating force in the middle in the Eastern Conference outside of Dwight Howard, so using Primoz as the 4th option off the bench is only legitimate when fouls are needed against Shaq.
Growth is a part of life. You cycle out the old and you bring in the new. All we have to go with now is future. Sure, without Rasheed Wallace this team would be dead in the water, probably. That’s easy to say though about any team. How do you think the Tigers turned into an overnight success Sauce? Because they called up their young studs to pitch in the rotation, and they used their youth to acquire other talent. Without playing your youth, there is no future.
If you don’t play Amir, Stuckey, Afflalo now then we’re at the same spot we were last season as Piston fans… Bitching about the poor rotation, and longing for the days of Mike James and Corliss Williamson. This team has talent on the bench, which is going to help their starters a lot more than any other team in the NBA.. besides the Lakers at this point. A strong bench to go along with arguably the NBA’s #1 or #2 ranked starting 5 in the league is nothing to turn your nose up to.
This team is already looked at like they’re the benefactor of a weak Eastern Conference for the last 6 years. In many circles, they’re already the Atlanta Braves and the Buffalo Bills… I’m fine with that, and I’m sure many others are fine with it. But this team’s depth, they went 10 deep to come back against the Lakers, rivals that of only the 2004 squad. That 2004 squad could not go 10 deep and sustain a lead…
Everyone needs to just relax… it’s fun to be excited about more than the possibility of another 50 win season and an ECF appearance… it’s fun to give a standing ovation to the guys that are 8-10 years younger than the usual suspects we always see, when they do good. Lighten up a bit Sauce… if Amir helps this team win a title this season or next, give me your address because I’ll personally buy you a Amir #25 jersey
Yeah, Boney made some good points. Patience is a virute most sports fans don’t have. Can’t really blame them nowadays I guess, everyone would like to be winning. After ECF was over last year, most people were writing this team off and saying the core should be broken up. I couldn’t be happier to see them leading their division while the over-hyped Bulls are 14.5 games behind. Plus, we’re getting an entire second unit developed. Hype is all around us. If people want to give Amir some, let them. And no more comparing basketball teams to other franchises from different sports. I actually saw an article awhile back on espn.com that compared the Spurs to the Patriots. Basketball and Football have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Baseball and basketball have nothing to do with one another. The Atlanta Braves, Buffalo Bills, and Detroit Pistons have absolutely NOTHING to do with one another!
I don’t think people can read.
The attack is aimed at all of you, not Amir.
It’s a parody of the can-do-no-wrong that shows up for him. I took the polar opposite.
Considering the lack of understanding most people hold, I’m really not surprised. I tend to waste a lot of time, and this was clearly running into a brick wall with regard to getting people to laugh.
So, for the attention and the misunderstanding, thanks. I’ll continue to take umbrage and be a stooge. You earned it!
Two words: Daniel Gibson.
He was the difference last year, NOT Lebron.
Whats this mean? Do the Cavs have a better starting unit than the Stones? No. Are they deeper? No. Yet a little used rookie PG burned us simply because he had fresh legs and a 3 ball. Thats what this year is about, keepin it fresh. I am loving the play of Stuckey, Spellcheck and Amir. Keep it coming I say. It will be the difference in the end.
OT: 11 blocks for Cheick Samb in tonight’s D-League game.
Sauce: I actually enjoyed the piece, and I think you made some good points about the guy probably (okay, definitely) not deserving as much attention as he’s received, especially from this site. But it’s kind of the nature of the medium and the niche this site fills …
The mainstream media (newspapers, TV and radio) spends so much time focusing on the big name starters that I don’t feel a need to echo most of their sentiments, even if I personally agree. That coverage already exists, and I take for granted that the hardcore fans who end up on this site are well versed in it.
Last year, I championed the cause of Maxiell and Delfino getting more time — not for the sake of being different but because I really think those guys have a bright future in the league and the starting lineup could use the rest.
This year, Maxiell has stepped up big time, and (aside from a slight regression in January) has been excellent filling the role McDyess filled last year. He’s been so good, in fact, that I think most fans already know what he can do and no longer needs a guy (ie, me) tooting his horn all the time.
It’s a weird give-and-take that’s probably the reverse of most forms of media: as soon as a guy consistently starts deserving dap, I stop explicitly giving it. But it has to be like that, or else every post would start out, well, Chauncey and Rip are freaking good, Rasheed is awesome and McDyess has been the balls this year.
It doesn’t mean that I no longer appreciate Maxiell’s game, it’s just that he’s being given a chance to play and is meeting expectations. And if you re-read this piece, I tried to explain that as much as I want to see Amir play, even I can’t argue for him to see significant minutes when the other bigs (Maxiell, McDyess and Sheed) are playing as well as they have for most of the year.
I just don’t want Amir buried with 12 straight DNP-CDs — give him a few minutes here or there (even if every other game) just to keep him fresh and see what he can do. You see teams like the Bulls (last year) getting a shot in the arm when Tyrus Thomas gets on the court, or the Cavs getting hot when Daniel Gibson comes out of nowhere or Team X catching the opposition off guard when Random Rookie breaks out, but that rarely happens in Detroit. It’s a blessing that the Pistons haven’t had to rely heavily on young players, but it works against them when they never get a chance to catch lightning in a bottle.
I don’t know if any of that makes sense. Does Amir Johnson deserve all the attention I give him? Not at all if your sole criteria is, “how important is he to the team RIGHT NOW.” But since the rest of the media focuses so much on the starters (ie, the really important guys) to the point of overkill (remember Rip’s “slow start” to the season? He had a few so-so games in November and everyone acted like he and Tay suddenly forgot how to play together. Flash-forward half a season and he’s shooting a career-high 50%+ from the field …) that I try to round out the coverage by digging deeper than the most obvious storylines. And a lot of the time, the conversations we have on this site today are the things the newspapers and radio folk start noticing next week (and I mean that figuratively AND literally).
Maybe that makes things more clear, or maybe I’m rambling. I’m not sure. If I look at this in the morning and decide it’s the former, I might give this comment a coat of polish and make it an actual post, because it’s something I’ve wanted to explain for a while now, even before I came across Sauce’s post (which, again, I really enjoyed).
I was also perplexed as to why everyone was so excited about Amir. His skills seemed undeveloped. He looked like he’d be easily pushed around. And although he’s athletic, he’s not freakishly so the way Tyrus Thomas is.
That being said, these last few games have proven me wrong. He’s a better rebounder than I expected. He gets above the rim to get those boards. But, basically, I think he deserves to continue to get minutes because he makes things happen (more often good than bad).
I still remain in the tiny camp that sees Cheick Samb as the more exciting prospect and I will continue to hype him as the next Marcus Camby, but I’m excited to see how Amir will develop the rest of the year in the hopes that he can be a six minute a game player in the playoffs.
1) I can’t believe all the noise about Amir. He has tons of upside, no doubt, his game looks solid now, just wait until his body develops into what an NBA-caliber player looks like.
Even thought we don’t attend the practices, there is this presumption that we know more than Pistons management about their players. Yes, Flip historically has been reluctant to develop them, but do note that he has grown as a coach in the last couple of years (with the help of Dumars, of course).
2) Weren’t Rip and Kobe high school rivals or something like that?
Matt, you’re not rambling. Don’t play stupid with me!
Here’s the thing, Matt. It takes a ton to put together anything, be it Krista Jahnke, Rob Parker, Chris McCosky, your deal, or some random boob-job with a blog and a filthy mouth, such as myself. I totally get that you try to find a piece of the internet with the oft-overlooked points.
I re-read that piece on Amir. It’s clearly not him that I’m really against, although the funny part about all this is, I’m actually now starting to like him less. In particular, this push for Amir, and the result of fan-slobbers, plus the result of my post, it actually almost started a weird self-induced brain-wash in which I really did not like the kid. But even I can pull myself out of my own traps, and I say it here, just like I wrote it before . . . if he has his Tayshaun moment, it’s all worth it, and I’ll be happy for him.
One thing I’ve noticed about Front Office Joe Dumars and his job with the Pistons . . . players sometimes resemble the players he played with back in the day.
Here’s the one bit of sick puke praise I’ll give Amir Johnson . . . he appears to be Dennis Rodman-esque with regard to his likely skill-set.
And that brings me to the subject of “Detroit Bad Boys.”
When I watched this team, earliest, it was the mid-1980s, and I hated the frigging Celtics. That team that McCloskey put together, the one that Daly ran . . . it was magnificent. Even if they didn’t win it, they, with Isiah, Joe, Dennis, Bill, Buddha, the whole set of guys . . . they were mean. They were rotten. They gave little or no quarter to opponents. They let their opponents know just what it felt to get hit by a freight train of defense and Bill Laimbeer. And that’s what I loved about them. I loved that they were dirty rotten scoundrels.
I understand the irony of such Bad Boys of lore, all the while how they produced with a man who would eventually be honored with his name attached to the NBA’s sportsmanship award.
Over Joe’s tenure in the front office, he’s put together a very solid group. It’s a great team. I couldn’t be happier for Davidson’s success. The Pistons keep me entertained, more or less, or at least annoyed when they lump it a bit too much. It could be much much worse, for granted.
However, especially this year, there seems to be something missing.
Low fan interest, clearly not-sold-out seats . . . there are many factors that contribute to the why, but it just eats me . . . I remember back as a kid when I wanted to go to a Pistons game, especially during those championship seasons, it was one of the hardest tickets to get a hold. It seemed like back then . . . the Pistons were THE professional sporting event for a while in this state.
Often, I just don’t think this team has enough BAD in them. I hope I’m wrong.
For me, it’s not just about them winning . . . the now, the future, the past . . . it’s about being dirty, rotten, and scoundrel-y. I want to feel like I belong to a close band of pirates, collectively kicking the balls of the NBA when Detroit takes home the championship. I love that everyone else HATED us. And I just don’t feel that anymore, or at least, they hate us but they don’t care enough to let us know that we have to whoop their ass.
It’s also little things . . . this under the radar crap that the team pulls. If the Pistons have been under the radar all this time, especially still, then over half of the rest of the league’s been under the ground.
I feel like this team tends to be a little too goody-good for its own good. I say this DESPITE Rasheed Wallace and his exemplary efforts in the BAD department. The current Pistons actually do have a fair resemblance to what the old Bad Boys clubs had, with arguably better 3-point shooting, to boot.
However, I want to feel, as a fan, as a fan of their team, hated again, oddly enough.
I also find it nauseating to have too much of the high hopes and the praise and goody-good going on with regard to players, especially the young ones. I think by now that with Joe Dumars, after drafts that netted Mateen Cleaves and Darko Milicic, like The Wayne Fontes Experience notes in the next link, that we can safely back up off of any kid just a bit until he makes his own name. I understand that you may not be able to do that by your response, Matt, but maybe the fans can.
http://thewaynefontesexperience.blogspot.com/2007/06/joe-dumars-draft-history-low-is-high-up.html
It’s okay to be cynical. It’s okay to be goody-good. Just remember . . . if you’re Darko Milicic, you’ll end up huffing it next to Kwame Brown in a pyramid.
Maybe the bad-ass is Stuckey.
He does look a little like 50 cent.
i loved the bad boys, but i view their behavior as being necessary in a specific place and time. i’m proud that laimbeer showed it was all an act. i’m embarrassed that isiah showed it wasn’t.
they did it because they had to. we don’t. we’re already in everybody’s heads. we’re still the toughest, grittiest team in the league.
This site is falling fast. Careful everyone, don’t let the fan in you out when it comes to the young guys on the team. I understand if the posts were always negative, but too much praise for a player on the team? So what if there are some people on here that like to give Amir some hype. God forbid he ends up like the other 85% of players that don’t reach their full potential and there were actually fans praising him. At worse, any type of Amir “horn-tooting” comes from a desire to see the kid perfrom well and become an essential part of this team.
Sauce, this team doesn’t have they type of mindset that the Bad Boys did. You don’t care about them winning? The league’s been reformed. The Pistons already have enough trouble with whistles going against them. Trying to bring the Bad Boy image back won’t help that. That era has passed. I agree with Kyle, it was necessary for the time, but it’s over and done with.
I’m sad too say that I was too young during the Bad Boys era to remember much. My dad has had season tickets for over 30 years, so he saw it all. But I missed it. The only thing I can comment on is the apparent decrease in interest with some fans. My being a fan was bred out of the mid 90’s when things just that great. It took a long time to get back to being an elite team. 2004 actually bothered me when when our fan base was born on the bangwagon. Nowadays, the fans are just complacent and the players seem to be at times. We’ve been so consistent that those bandwagon fans are going to be uninterested until we’re in the finals again. They don’t get it. The Pistons serve the enthusiast market, which may not seem good enough at times. But I love it.
that’s one of the reasons I like the kids getting so much attention. you can’t really squeeze anything new and fresh out of the starters. all the stories are re-hashes of old stories and none of them are significantly changing up their game in any way. all we can do is nit-pick. i’d rather get excited over the kids than nit-pick the starters.
KLM1, you really can’t read.
F#$cking Iowa. My local ABC affiliate has opted to play IOWA WOMENS BASKETBALL over the Detroit/Dallas game. WTF. Since it is nationally televised (except for here in Corn Country), its not on League Pass or League Pass Broadband. Anyone have a link to a site with a streamed online feed of the game?
I’m pissed. I’m only here for a year or so, but my lady and I can not get out soon enough.
I’m not sure how this pistons team can defeat the best of the west. wow the lakers with gasol now…