There was a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories among fans regarding why Amir Johnson didn’t get into Wednesday’s game against the Jazz, but A. Sherrod Blakely cleared the air today:
And maybe most important to Joe Dumars, [Theo Ratliff] won’t take minutes away from Jason Maxiell or Amir Johnson, who had a serious head cold the other night before the Utah game when I talked with him. He should be good to go on Saturday against the Clippers.
I’m a little surprised it took so long for the explanation to come out, but then again, it’s possible none of the beat writers thought it was that odd to begin with. Even when Maxiell was being worked into the rotation last year, he’d often have a random DNP-CD tossed in there for no known reason. And while Johnson has played well of late (A.S.B. penned a longer article about his emergence yesterday), he’s hardly a permanent fixture just yet.
So it appears that the Jazz extraordinarily good luck against us continued on Wed. No doubt it has to eventually end. This year’s NBA Finals would be a good place to start, though I think that they are a long shot to get past the Lakers and Spurs among others to get to the Finals to face us.
I read the comments on the longer Blakely article. Rubbish. I’m glad I read DBB…
i’d love to face the jazz in the finals. beating them then would be very satisfying. though, i guess it wouldn’t be as satisfying as beating the spurs. beating the lakers is a given, it’s what we do, and i’m not even going to acknowledge phoenix as a championship contender anymore. so best of luck to the spurs and the jazz!
why the beat writers keep covering up for the coach is BEYOND me. McCrapsky says he got a DNPCD because Flip made a mistake. see Detnews. then he goes on to berate those of us who have a clue and know the guy DESERVES MORE RUN.
our beat writers SUCK.
Hey, you got what you wanted to hear: Flip messed up. McCosky had the right idea but the wrong question about the other Flip, who is scheduled to play for the Clips tomorrow. It’s not how many points Murray is going to get, it’s how many shots he’s going to take.
Flip should definitely be fired for not playing the 10th man in our rotation in the middle of a February West Coast swing. Amir getting a single DNP-CD and the Pistons’ loss (clearly resulting from Amir’s absence) is a harbinger of things to come. Flip’s finger clearly isn’t on the pulse of his players and the game, and should resign immediately.
Well, he admitted he made a “mistake,” and that’s Flip’s quote, not McCoskey’s. There’s a few things I can take issue with McCoskey for, but this isn’t one of them. Give Amir time. He’s 20. It’s not like Flip is averse to throwing young guys into the fire. He eventually started Garnett during his rookie year, but guess what?
He’s Kevin Garnett. It was the Minnesota Timberwolves. I’m just gonna stop ranting, because this Amir-Flip non-issue shouldn’t be fed anymore than it is. But man…
BTW, huge Blakely MLive piece on Amir today that doesn’t say anything most of us didn’t know. Feed your fix, you junkies!
Yeah, this really sparked the kind of overreaction I’ve come to expect from Portland fans.
They’re all probably screaming for more Von Wafer (who I like, actually).
Not quite, but they’re a mercurial bunch. Take Aldridge. When the team is winning, he’s a fantastic young big man who has several All-Star games ahead of him. When they’re losing, Aldridge is a pathetic softy who will never amount to anything. It’s actually kind of disturbing how they deal with adversity, which is why I don’t want the same thing to happen here.
Are you kidding? It’s been like that for quite awhile, since Flip’s been the coach, especially. And Tayshaun seems to be our version of Aldridge, then. One minute, he’s thought of as a premier defensive stopper with one of the most unique skill-sets in the league. The next, he’s seen as a disinterested, overrated defender that needs to be upgraded ASAP.
No real clue where to put this………
But hell yeah’s “Ya’ll forgot about Dre”
Hopefully we’re out of the woods because DAYUM was it no fun being in a hopsital bed while EVERYONE made huge trades…
Missed Ya’ll
Thanks Keegan for some needed sarcasm.
Eh, to some extent all fans do that. Maybe I just happen to know some egregiously bad Portland fans.
It was pretty unnecessary. I’m really bored, and I apologize.
Totally OT: Pacers’ (interim?) starting point guard Travis Diener’s assist to turnover ratio for the month of February: 75/11, that’s 6.82/1. That’s just sick. Too bad the guy has horrible shooting nights and the rest of his team sucks. He makes some out of this world passes though.
More OT: Natalie @ Need4Sheed linked to contest to get a free fun center built at a children’s hospital via Colgate-Palmolive. Right now the hospital in Detroit is in the lead but it could use more votes.
http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/Corp/CommunityPrograms/show-the-love/vote.cvsp
That’s awesome for a guy who I thought would only be known for playing with Dwayne Wade at Marquette.
1. Amir head a bed head cold
2. Flip didn’t want to play him because of his bad head cold
3. Flip thought that the Pistons would win without AJ playing
4. The Pistons lost
5. Flip then said that is was a mistake not to play Amir (even though he had a bad head cold)
Good Samb performance tonight, in a losing effort:
6-12 for 15 points, seven rebounds, eight blocks, and didn’t foul out.
Guys - I think y’all missed something here:
PISTONS GIRL FOR LIFE IS BACK, Y’ALL!
Welcome back - now try to pass me up in the comments!!!!!!
PG4L! We’ve missed ya, its good to see you around in these parts. Hopefully you’re happy and healthy, just like our boys in blue.
welcome back PG4L, i’ve missed your fashion critiques. marquise daniels shouldn’t be allowed to play against us if you’re not here to mock him.
PG4L,welcome back Mama. If you look back over the post of the last week you’ll see a lot of PG4L love being shown whiel you were out. Welcome home.
Welcome back, PG4L! It almost seems like there’s as much PG4L love as there is Amir love, but we all know that’s impossible.