I can’t figure out what’s more impressive — that half-court shot or this one from Corey Maggette. In any case, here’s to hoping we don’t see any hijinks like that tonight (unless, of course, it’s from a guy wearing a blue jersey) as the Pistons go for their 11th in a row against the hapless Clippers. It’s a late one — ball tips at 10:30pm on FSN — but a good chunk of you reside on the left coast, anyway. For a Clipper-tinted view of the world, visit Clips Nation and ClipperBlog; otherwise, have at it in the comments.
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Ay, it’s a late one, and I live on the EC, but the wife’s bringin’ home some beers. It’s gonna be a good night…
billups or no billups, losing to the clippers would be as embarrassing as airballing a half court shot in front of a stadium full of people after a 90 pound cheerleader swished it backwards from the same spot.
Well said, JackDutch.
How many games has Phoenix lost since they acquired Shaq? They are down 103-87 to Philly right now. Ouch.
umm.. Sheed and Dice start… Sheed goes out, Max comes in… Dice goes out, Sheed comes in… Amir still have a “cold”?
Chauncey’s dead? When did that happen?
These announcers crack me up!
I guess ‘Sheed is pretty fair at this basketball thing.
Calm down, people. Amir’s in.
Is this game on TV or the internets? I’m following the game on ESPN.
Well, we get to watch the real pros, George and Greg. Intelligent, relevant, . . . You don’t realize how good you have it until you have to listen to “those other guys”.
It’s amazing what Tay can do - eight assists at the half…
nba tv broadcaster at the half “Flip Saunders has to keep his guys focused because its been too easy so far”.
Rasheed goes down and shoots a left handed post shot…
This is looking more and more like a scrimmage.
Yeah, Kelser was talking about how Sheed had shown the Clips his whole arsenal and then he does that. Kelser had to correct himself.
lol, I loved Sheeds imitation of Maggette’s dribble
We’d be up by about 30 if it wasn’t for all of these free throws.
I’m liking what I am seeing from Juan so far.
Walter Hermann needs to take Jarvis’ place….seriously
Free throws are what you expect with any game with Maggette.
I also liked what I saw from Dixon. With him and Hayes, the team has two guys who can drop in 10-15 coming off the bench in a blink, but they’re both streaky, and having players like that can be kind of unsettling.
Wow, out of all the pistons Walter Hermann gets the loudest response from the crowd.. The crowd were going nuts whenever he would touch the ball! And especially on that gliding layup he did at the end..
I thought he played pretty decently today and definetly feel that he should be strongly considered to be the next man behind Prince..
Also, Juan showed tonight that he can flat-out score.. Maybe he could be brought into the rotation somehow during the playoffs.. I’m really liking the depth of our bench and find it hard to choose who to play out of them.
great to see from dixon, great game. max and amir were pretty dominant, i’m impressed. i may be coming around on herrmann getting more minutes, but i’d try to trim afflalo’s rather than jarvis’ as much as i could. he’s had a couple of good offensive games (afflalo), but for the most part he’s a liability unless he’s towards the front of the pack on a fast break, in which case he’s an excellent finisher.
BOLD PREDICTION
Phoenix will miss the playoffs!
Like those who mentioned above, I loved what we saw out of Dixon. His offensive accuracy reminds me of a certain Piston who didn’t start tonight… and on the defensive end, he reminded me quite a bit of Hunter. Although Dickau was able to get around him a few times, his presence on the defensive end was very strong. If the development of Stuckey weren’t so important, and if Dixon played like this every game, it’d be a tough sell for Flip to decide who to put in the game first.
As for Herrmann, I’m feeling that my recent post here on the subject of him vs. Hayes continues to hold water. To me, Walter just seems like a sure thing, whereas Hayes is little more than a question mark on each possession where he’s got the ball.
My feelings: Dixon was a solid move by Joe D– lets hope he keeps it up. Stuckey– kind of poor for his first start. Too soon to judge on either of the above, however. Amir– my hero, as always.
Anononymous… I said that 6 games ago. =)
Has anyone seen The Suns next 4 games? Portland, Denver, Utah, SA.
I hope in each one of those games the coach uses the same line he used in the Pistons game: “We’re better than these guys!” The only one that disagrees with you is the scoreboard.
Ha ha. D’Antoni is nutty. It’s really funny to see him get angry, which is why I like watching Phoenix lose even though I don’t have any real grudge against the players.
Dixon’s not going to play like this every game, but his three point shooting this year has been pretty good, and he is a pest on D. He’s pretty easy to overpower though, which could be a problem against stronger guards.
MP - i read your article about hayes and herrmann and i have just one question. we know that jarvis has his cold streaks. you didn’t mention if herrmann had one of his own last year. did he? how bad was it?
All I know is for a guy putting in 4-5 minutes in a game, Hermann’s stat line is almost as good as the guy ahead of him getting 20.
I appreciate the fact that Jarvis has a set role on this team, and that’s gunslinger. Hermann doesn’t shoot that bad either, his defense is superior, and he plays hard no matter the game scenario.
We went through some of this with Maurice Evans playing ahead of Delfino a couple of years ago. Part of that was that Evans was Flip’s guy from Minnesota, but two years later, it’s clear who the better talent is.
You know, for all the talk about should we play Amir, how valuable is he, ect, every time I bother to look up the +/- it seems like Amir is always at the top for us. I thought he played pretty well last night, not spectacular. I think his hustle is a major catalyst for the runs that extend our leads and allow us to blow out opponents. It’s really hard not to be excited about what he’s going to bring to the table when he manages to put it all together. He should absolutely be playing 15-20 minutes a game.
How about Herrmann? He was pretty terrific in about 8 minutes last night. That bounce pass he threw along the baseline was a thing of beauty. He’s winning me over and depending on the situation, he should be right there with Jarvis in terms of coming off the bench to play the 3. I really like what he’s been able to do.
Ohad- Herrmann never really had a chance to hit a hot streak or a cold streak prior to the end of the season. Until then, all he saw was garbage minutes and many DNP’s in a row. So with that, no- he didn’t have a cold streak (or another hot streak) last season.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4207/gamelog;_ylt=AjT_u6TWKmCd6.RhAjYwjfqkvLYF?year=2006
“Part of that was that Evans was Flip’s guy from Minnesota, but two years later, it’s clear who the better talent is.”
They both seem to be doing about the same thing, which is what I expect would be the case in a Hayes/Fabio split. In fact, we have essentially been seeing about the same production at that spot for years.
I think the Hayes’ rep as a streak shooter is a product of a couple 4-5 game streaks. Outside of that, he has been pretty consistent, and quite good. For the playoffs, I don’t mind having a streak shooter of the bench, especially given some of the listless performances we have registered the last two seasons.
One solution to the Herrmann/Hayes equation might be to find minutes at the backup two spot. Afflalo is not showing me signs that he is playoff-ready, and he has had all sorts of chances.
why not give Herrmann a chance - let him play so quality minutes in a few games and lets see — what do we have to lose?????
“some quality . . .
I just took a gander at the schedule and we’re facing the Celtics on Wednesday! Can’t wait for that game.
I,too,would like to see Herrmann get more playing time.I think he is a victim of the “must be athletic” fear in the nba.He seems to be an awkward-looking guy that seems to be in the right place at the right time.He has played and starred in BIG games in the olympics and won gold with argentina.Someone is going to give this guy a chance and he is going to be a pleasant suprise.I hope its us.
IsraeliPiston asks:
“why not give Herrmann a chance - let him play quality minutes in a few games and lets see — what do we have to lose?????”
And then answers his own question:
“Some quality.”
That’s harsh dude. Herrmann doesn’t deserve that.
Watching the Bulls-Cavs game, and I am completely confused. All these different players, the jerseys are all red and white. It’s like the new Big East and ACC. Why is Boston College playing UNC? Oh, right, Ben Wallace just blocked Tyrus Thomas.
To make matters worse, the teams have Noah and Varejao, respectively.
And has any game ever featured more decidedly average players? Gooden, Varejao, Noah, Hinrich, Gordon, Joe Smith, Ben Wallace, Nocioni, Deng, Gibson. You could make a case that any one of those guys represents the median talent level in the NBA.
Could we start a Herrman petition? Gotta get this guy some time, it’s not like we have a dominant rotation guy in front of him. If I’m not mistaken there’s a black hole who doesn’t play D in front of him. Couldn’t hurt us. Free Walter!!!!!!!!
I also think that Herrmann can defend against James much better than Hayes
Hayes plays solid D (and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been watching him and is just rehashing old scouting reports) and is much more of a threat from 3 point land than Herrmann. Herrmann plays downright feisty, nasty D (better than Hayes’s), can slice through defenses, and can zip some nasty passes as evidenced last night. Hayes has been a starter for the Wiz and this is his 5th season in the NBA. Despite being two years older than Hayes, Walter is only in his 2nd season in the NBA. Hayes has also been on the road with these same guys and has played with them for 59 games (only Hayes, Tay and Maxiell have played in every game for us this year), whereas Hermann has only been with us since Dec. 17th (playing in 18 of 36 games since joining the squad). I believe there’s a reasonably (if not equally) valid argument to be made for continuity and familiarity amidst Hayes’s skill set in the face of a “Herrmann seems to have more talent” argument.
Truth be told, I’m struggling with ambivalence on the situation. I think I’d like to see more time for Hermann but I’m not sure how you can really slice Jarvis’s minutes. If Hayes could handle it at the 2 (I sincerely doubt Herrmann could, though I suppose it’s possible), I like the idea presented here of cutting into Afflalo’s minutes. I dunno, I just don’t see this one as being so cut and dry and easy to come down strongly on one side.
lawyerboy, good post.I just think that ,while hayes is a good player,he is very streaky and it seems that when he enters a game,other teams seem to go right at him.I think Herrmann is a better defensive player and I think if he were played some time with sheed and billups you would see something develope that would be a real plus for the pistons.It just seems odd to me that no one on the pistons seem to be interested in finding out if the assets on this team are optimized and utilized for building the team for the playoffs.
@LawyerBoy:
“is much more of a threat from 3 point land than Herrmann”
The stats suggest otherwise, for the most part. This season, Herrmann has had very few touches from downtown. When he has more touches, he’s a significantly better 3 point shooter than Jarvis. When Herrmann was averaging 2.4 3 pointers attempted per game last season, he was hitting 46.1% of those. Jarvis is shooting his best this year, making only 38% of around the same attempts as Herrmann last season.
I’m confident that with more touches, more plays for Herrmann as a wing shooter (like Jarvis’ role), Walter would prove to be a better 3 point threat– just like he did last season.
Re: Herrmann’s NBA experience vs. Hayes– while that is noteworthy, Herrmann’s gold medal with team Argentina in the 2004 Olympics is noteworthy as well.
Your note about synchronicity and experience on this Pistons team is important– it would be a risk to our playbook and our locker room to pull back from Hayes and push Herrmann. With 2nd seed a near guarantee, it might be worth dividing up the SF minutes even further. I doubt Tay would mind a few extra minutes of rest to close out March and April…
I thought the situations where Hayes played the 2 last night worked well - with either Tay or Strretch at the 3. I love Aflalalalalo’s game, but I think there’s merit to Hayes at the 2 and WH at the three, particularly since WH seems like a pretty good passer…
lawyerboy is right about hayes defense. he’s stepped it up and it’s about time people start recognizing that. i agree with kevin s. when he says we should start scaling down afflalo’s minutes. he’s not enough of a defensive stopper to justify ignoring his offensive deficincies. he’s a great project for the future, but dixon and hayes offer more right now. once hunter comes back afflalo will be redundant.
That was the pefect game to watch stonned on painkillers and powerful anti biotics…. Just enough sizzle to keep me awake but not enough danger to get me excited and risk hurting myself.
Am I the only one getting kinda bored with the playoffs still too far away?
PGFL - Detroit vs. Boston on Wed
Boston rests as of yesterday
we play seattle tuesday night
Should be interesting
Hope you get better soon
PG4L: Welcome back, keep getting better. Something tells me Wednesday will be anything but boring.
MP: I give you the “more touches” argument completely, but the 2004 Olympic medal argument doesn’t really seem to make any sense to me. The NBA is its own brand of basketball and previous Olympic medals only show to me that the guy can handle pressure, not that he’s “NBA-ready”. He probably is NBA ready, but Jarvis is more the known quantity, which leads me to … Thank you for the love on the continuity argument. I think fans too often overlook the little things. I think the Pistons believe that there is a “right way to do things”, and making an abrupt switch wouldn’t be the “right way to do things”.
LB, all good points, my friend. Maybe we’ll see a more diplomatic approach to getting Walter some extra minutes that don’t hurt Hayes.
MP, thank you. That diplomatic approach would be to swipe a few minutes from Mr. Afflalo, the rook. Of course, Afflalo will most certainly be on this team next season, whereas Herrmann probably will not. It’s still a very tender situation. It sure is a nice problem to have though.
While I agree that there is an argument for continuity with Hayes, and that Hermann has not had much time with this team. But as Joe D. said with regards to the other youngin’s on the team, “If you don’t play them now, then you can’t play them in the playoffs.”
Same goes for Hermann. If we want him for the playoffs (and we all know we do), then we need to get him more minutes now. With how well the starters are playing, there are more minutes to go around. Hayes isn’t going to suffer if every other game for the next couple weeks he plays 4 or 5 minutes less.
They’re two players with some definite similarities (three ball), but they definitely have different styles of game and it would be in our best interest to have them both prepared for the playoffs.
As for Afflalo having his minutes cut, I have no problem with that. However, I don’t like the idea of Hayes helping Stuckey up the floor with a pressure defense on him, and if you’re cutting Afflalo’s numbers then your playing Stuckey, Hayes, Hermann…Hayes has the shooting ability of a 2 guard but I’m not confident enough in Stuckey’s ability to get the ball up the floor on his own with a full court press…
just found this on the Clips Nation blog http://www.clipsnation.com/story/2008/3/2/23415/19109
by ClipperSteve:
“I went to the Detroit game last season, and while I wouldn’t say there were more Pistons fans than Clippers fans, they were certainly louder, and infinitely more obnoxious. Even watching on TV tonight, the roar of ‘SHEED’ when Wallace touched the ball was unmistakable. They even seemed to know all of the Palace traditions - I mean, they didn’t spontaneously decide to cheer when Walter Herrmann touched the ball, did they?
I’m really glad we don’t have to see those guys again for awhile.”
Domination. Now THAT’S Detroit Basketball.