I’ve been busy so a few of these are old, but in case you missed them …
- The last few summers, the word everyone has liked to use when talking about the Pistons has been “complacency.” What’s the new buzz word? “Accountable.” Lindsey Hunter is using it, Chauncey Billups is using it, and, of course, Michael Curry is using it:
[Michael Curry]: We can be two different teams at times. You look at Boston, they were first in the league defensively. We were second. The difference is, when you played Boston, they were going to be the best defensive team every night. They played you the same way. With us, we would be up and down. The question is, how can we make sure we are the same team, every night?
SN: But how do you do that?
MC: We’ll see. We’ll be holding people accountable when they need to be.
I’m sure you noticed this already (DBB readers hopped on this wagon back in May!), but now that I pointed it out, try to see how many Pistons interviews you see that don’t have this word. There aren’t many.
- We’re doing a “biggest busts of the 00’s” series at FanHouse, and today I shined the light on Rodney White, whom the Pistons chose over Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Zach Randolph, Gerald Wallace, Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas, not to mention any other number of warm bodies who could have actually, you know, contributed.
- Speaking of FanHouse, my colleagues have been killing it with their Olympic hoops coverage, especially if you’re looking for more than just Team USA news.
- Scott Perry confirms Amir Johnson’s spot in the rotation:
“I think he’s somebody we look at to be in our rotation playing each night,” Perry said. “What number (in the big man pecking order) that is, that will be determined once we come to camp and start playing games. But right now, he’s a guy who’ll be in the rotation each night. We’re going to play four big guys a night, at least, so he has a good opportunity to step in and one thing we know he’s going to provide is energy and athleticism every night.
This was already expected, but it’s still nice to hear.
- Really, Allan Houston? Another comeback?
- Tayshaun Prince is in Beijing and carefree. From Michael Rosenberg in the Free Press:
Prince said he has not been in Detroit since the day Flip Saunders was fired. He felt no need to call Joe Dumars and ask what is happening.
[…] “To be honest with you, I haven’t been looking at what’s going on,” he said. “Everything eventually is going to take care of itself. A lot of guys worry about trade rumors. I’m the type of guy, I know that wherever I end up, I know I can help the team.”
Prince only played seven minutes in Sunday’s game against China, but not a lot of people can say they played in front of a billion people.
- Play amateur GM, win a Need4Sheed t-shirt.
- Jason Maxiell faces Jeff Foster in Hoops Addict’s Floor Burn Tournament. Go vote.
Did anybody watch the China-US game? Poor Tayshaun looked like me at a club during my college years. Everybody else is gettin’ busy, throwin’ down, finding action and I’m on the side watching the drinks, just happy the guys from my dorm floor invited me along. Seriously–Tayshaun’s open on the wing and Deron Williams (Deron Williams!?!) is snubbing him to drive the overly clogged lane? Tayshaun’s napping quietly at the top of the key and Paul tries to pass through fifteen Chinese to a covered teamate? Tayshaun’s trying to talk to Anthony during a timeout and security checks Tayshaun’s credentials to figure out how this cat got on the floor. Sure, Tayshaun was as productive as Kidd in four less minutes, but that’s like me saying I got as much action at the bar as our pimply, fat, and old RA who we had to bring along so he wouldn’t report our underage drinking. Apparently, Tayshaun is the Christian Laettner of the Redeem Team.
How does MC hold Sheed accountable given that Sheed is in the last year of his contract at $13 million and has said that there is good chance that he will retire after this year.
Well maybe if Sheed wants to stay with Pistons organization is some coaching capacity then he could be motivated to try and be more consistent but other than that I think it could come down to Sheed just not getting minutes if he isn’t bringing it.
My guess is that if he doesn’t plan to stick around basketball after this year that he probably could care less how many minutes he will get.
If Sheed doesn’t get with MC’s program I expect Joe D. to look to try and move Sheed and his big contract sometime after the season starts and before the trade deadline.
Hopefully Sheed will buy in and earn at least most of his $13 million salary for this coming year.
Thanks for hyping up the tournament! Mad Max should win with ease but weirder things have happened. If your a Pistons fan go vote for your boy!
We should assign Sheed an accountabilabuddy.
Shinons: I vote Kwame! They could follow the two of them around with cameras and it would be amazing.
@Garrett: that’s a reality show in the making!
+1 Shinons
-1 Garrett.
Someone who hasn’t been held accountable for his own suckfest his entire career should not be anyone’s accountabilabuddy.
I do like this quote from Scott “We’re going to play four big guys a night, at least”…
Hopefully that means, “We’re only going to play Kwame if absolutely necessary, can’t you fucksticks see that he’s trade bait?”
“…just happy the guys from my dorm floor invited me along”
lately we’ve been getting WAY too many personal tidbits from people here. Could it be more obvious that this is the off-season?
by the way, can you use the word fucksticks in an interview?
Boney: It was a joke. Like the odd couple. Well, not really, but still.
Garrett: I believe the Odd Couple would be Sheed and Walter Hermann.
A show with Sheed and any foreign player would work. You’d never hear “this cat’s gangsta” more in any other half hour of TV.
“Hopefully Sheed will buy in and earn at least most of his $13 million salary for this coming year.”
While the nature of NBA contracts generally means that players are overpaid at the end of their terms, is it really plausible to say that Sheed hasn’t earned his money? We could have worse problems than having a talented big man who is content to play great defense and let others run the offense from time to time.
Has it occurred to anyone that the Pistons have been so consistently good because they are excellent basketball players who care a great deal about the game? Blech…
The problem with the Pistons is there is too much talk and not enough action. Apparently the organization is satisfied with the team they have which is why no major moves have been made to date.For the last two years the team has had a been there done that attitude which bit them in the but against the Celtics. Unfortunately going into this season I see nothing to cheer about. They will be same lethargic, unexciting team that they have been.They have the personnel to win but they lack the will and determination necessary to win it all
“is it really plausible to say that Sheed hasn’t earned his money?”
He’s the highest paid player on the team. Yet when the team really needs him, he’s on the bench with two techs. Or he pulls a complete no-show (even the great interior defense was absent in that Game 6 against the Celtics).
Flip Saunders catches most of the blame for the Pistons failures but I’m guessing Sheed was paid at least 6 times as much as he was.
With his salary, Sheed should be the team leader but the only leading I’ve seen is teaching the rest of the team how to complain about refs and no longer get any calls.
I think we’ve lost perspective. Kevin S. is right clearly these guys including Sheed know how to play basketball they’ve made it to the conference finals every year that Sheed has been here. But because we keep getting bounced out of the playoffs the same way every year we lose sight of the fact that we are better than all but three of the leagues other teams and in most cases better than all but one.
So we look at all of the negatives, like Sheed getting t’d up and Billups missing critical shots and think the sky is falling down. Well it’s not. We are still a good team.
Sheed may be one of the highest paid players on the team but the market dictates what he is payed. Believe me he was a coveted commodity when the Pistons got him for essentially a first round pick. Just because he is the highest paid player doesn’t mean he has lost the right to be emotional on the court or sometimes get outplayed by a superior front line.
Jesus Melo’ is once again looking like crap versus angola. Please god don’t let us trade for him.
Kobe needs to stop taking so many 3s. At least Prince was a little more involved this time.
According to TrueHoop, Team USA brought along Rip’s personal chef to Beijing. Since they are also using Piston Tony Razzone as their scout I see it as only fitting that Arnie Kander should cook up some personalized ionically aligned water for each member of the team.
Flip Saunders catches most of the blame for the Pistons failures but I’m guessing Sheed was paid at least 6 times as much as he was.>>
Flip is being paid another $5 million or so this year and he will be doing less than Sheed to earn it. LOL
The Pistons officially announced they resigned Walter Herrmann.
detnews.com: “Walter is a player with tremendous work ethic and showed last year that he’s a player that can contribute to this team,” Pistons president Joe Dumars said.
In an 82 game season it helps to have energy guys like Herrmann. I know his frenetic style doesn’t always produce results but I think it helps the coach to be able to ask the starters “Why aren’t you bringing it like the 11th guy on our bench?”.
What i learned from watching the Spain/China match:
1) China is geting way too much respect from the refs. Spain had two chances to finish that game with no OT and the refs just sold them out
2)Portland is going to be interesting to watch with Oden and rudy fernandez coming into play
if you want to watch some games, check out:
http://www.myp2pforum.eu/nba-basketball/24986-beijing-olympic-basketballtournament-schedule-offical-streams.html
nice streams. and if you can d/l the spain/china game, i’d reccomend it
And another thing. Ricky rubio is going to be a very very good ball player soon. you have to watch that game. that kid is one of the best defensive guards i’ve seen in a long while.
I apparently can’t watch things on that channel, but I am curious about Rubio. I only have the boxscore to look on, but he seems to have done a lot this game (rebounds, assists, 5 steals!) even though he struggled to score. Granted, the Chinese backcourt doesn’t seem to respond well to pressure, but that’s still something. Is it mostly his anticipation and hands that you’re impressed with, or is it something else?
It’s a bit surprising that China gave Spain so many problems (they may have seen that incredibly classy ad that the Spanish players put up…). I wonder if they would have won with a healthy Yao.
82games has a list up of how players did against Good, Average, and Poor teams during this past season. Rasheed Wallace has one of the most extreme splits of any player, playing much better vs. good teams.
Players who scored more against good & poor NBA teams:
Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, A. Iverson, Rasheed Wallace, Al Harrington, Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Shaq, A. Kirilenko, Tim Duncan, Ron Artest, LaMarcus Aldridge
And that’s it. Chris Paul and Deron Williams were consistently good against all teams so I don’t want to leave them out with no mention. There is more to basketball than scoring but I think the quality of the players on that list speaks for itself and maybe highlights some guys who show up against top competition that you would name off the top of your head (Kirilenko, Aldridge, Terry, Rondo).
“Sheed may be one of the highest paid players on the team but the market dictates what he is payed. Believe me he was a coveted commodity when the Pistons got him for essentially a first round pick. Just because he is the highest paid player doesn’t mean he has lost the right to be emotional on the court or sometimes get outplayed by a superior front line.”
I understand WHY Sheed is the highest paid player on the team and that in the NBA you are paid as much for past performance and future potential as much as present day production, but I don’t think that excuses him.
He’s still the highest paid player on the team and (especially since this is a league with strict salary cap rules) he should be held to the standard of his contract.
Playing with emotion is one thing. Behavior that is destructive to the team is another.
Sheed is an incredible talent and his defense during the regular season was impeccable. But, it’s more certain than not that he can’t be counted on when everything’s on the line.
I will give him one thing though. If he is imparting knowledge to the young big (in terms of technique, not mental approach to the game), than that makes up for some of his on-court shortcomings.
joejoejoe: I haven’t taken a look at that study, but I think you should be careful about drawing conclusions from something like that. The Pistons had a lot of blowouts, and Sheed’s minutes were reduced in those games. In the same vein, he also generally played more when the Pistons played stronger teams. So yeah, he should score more when he has more minutes against a stronger team as opposed to when he sits for quarters at a time in a blowout win (the same thing applies to the Celtics on that list). It’d be more interesting to see if his percentages, TO rate, and so forth improve against better teams.
If that holds up, that’s a pretty cool trend, but it’s not one that kept up this postseason, where he played the best offensively against Philly and did noticeably worse as the teams got tougher.
@PM - Rubio has long hands and very good ball anticipation. He sticks to his man generally makes a pest out of himself. The israeli commentators talked about him having to improve his shot if he wants to move to the NBA but he’s so young that he has plenty of time for that
Ah. Just wondering, because some guards have good anticipations but overplay the passing lanes (Iverson). If he sticks to his guy and racks up steals, that’s pretty impressive. A Euro guard who can D it up would be a good change of pace.