The first two games of the AI Era didn’t exactly impress, so when the Pistons opened last night’s game by falling behind 14-2 early in the first, I expected the worst. As it turns out, my pessimism was completely unjustified: the Pistons actually clawed their way back to a tie by halftime before pulling away for good in the fourth quarter.
Who said Allen Iverson can’t fit into Detroit’s system? He led both teams with 30 points and nine assists. With Rodney Stuckey still in Michigan, Iverson spent all of two and a half minutes on the bench (all in the first half) yet still had enough left in the tank in the fourth to score nine points, grab three boards and collect both of his steals. A lot of guys played well down the stretch, but none so in the final frame than AI. In case the first two games left you confused, this was the type of performance that convinced Joe Dumars to pull the trigger.
But if we’re going to heap praise on Iverson for his big game, Tayshaun Prince deserves an extra helping, himself. Prince finished with 26 points and 11 boards, and through seven games he’s averaging 18.7 points and 7.7 boards, both of which would represent career-high marks by a wide margin were he able to maintain that production all season. With over 90% of the season left to play, it’s silly to overreact about a nice start, especially since Prince has teased us over a series of games in the past before reverting back to his career norms. Is there any reason to think this time will be any different?
Call me a sucker, but I think there might be. With Billups gone, Prince is being asked to step up as a playmaker and, presumably, fill a void in the locker room. And to steal a point made last night by George Blaha and Greg Kelser, perhaps spending his summer winning a gold medal with the Redeem Team made him realize he has star potential no matter the opponent and can be more than just a reliable glue guy.
My biggest problem with Prince in the past has always been his tendency to fade into the background and defer to his teammates, but he’s really taken Curry’s team-wide mandate to be aggressive to heart. From the Freep’s Vince Ellis:
“For us to be successful, he (Prince) has threes he has to defend who are really good and really aggressive,” Curry said. “We want him to be able to go back at them, as well.
“We want that mind-set to be developed for Tay the whole year. So when we do get into a series against those elite threes in the league, he can push them, as well.”
Maybe he won’t continue topping 20 on a nightly basis, but there’s reason to think it’ll be more than the once-or-twice-monthly occurrence we’ve seen from him in the past. And if that’s the case, maybe Curry’s All-Star prediction will come true.
I mentioned Will Bynum in the previous post, but I’ll reiterate: good things happen when he’s on the court. I’m literally amazed at how well he’s able to knife his way through the lane, and his disruptive defense hasn’t been bad either. This isn’t the case of “aw, look at the tiny guy keep up! let’s subconsciously overrate his contributions” praise, either — the numbers bear out what my eyes are seeing: he’s posted an impressive 20.0 PER through his first four games. That’ll almost certainly decline with a more legitimate sample size, but it’s on Curry to let Bynum keep dancing until he turns into a pumpkin. From the same Freep article as above:
“Regardless of the team, he can find a way to get into that paint,” Curry said. “He probably runs the mid pick-and-roll as well as anyone. He’s a very strong finisher. He’s been ready every time we’ve called upon him.”
Rip Hamilton had another off night but finished on a high note: after missing his first eight shots (that’s 16 bricks in a row, dating back to the New Jersey game), he went 4-8 from the field the rest of the night. I’m going to give him a pass, especially considering he finished with 17 points, thanks largely to going 8-8 from the stripe. His track record is far too consistent to think he won’t can’t work his kinks out.
Speaking of Curry, he deserves credit for sticking to his guns and refusing to let the Kings dictate his rotations. Sacramento essentially started three centers (Brad Miller, Mikki Moore and Jason Thompson) and a fourth (Spencer Hawes) saw significant action. Most coaches would see a trio of seven-footers on the court and panic, but Curry stuck with his handy three-guard lineup with Tay at the four. Let’s be honest, Bynum and AI are barely six-feet-tall in shoes, but they were both in the backcourt in crunch time against a pack of roaming giants — that just doesn’t happen. From the Detroit News’ Chris McCosky:
By going to a small lineup, featuring Bynum, Iverson and either Afflalo or Richard Hamilton, Curry also forced the Kings to alter their attack. They had been killing the Pistons with pick-and-roll plays. Once the Pistons went small, Kings coach Reggie Theus decided to abandon the pick-and-roll for straight post-ups.
“We felt better about defending the post-ups than the pick and rolls,” Curry said. “This one worked out in our favor.”
Had it backfired, Curry would have been roasted, so he deserves a little credit for making an interesting decision that paid off.
Pistons 100, Kings 92 box score / NBA.com
Game Flow / PopcornMachine.net
Game Thread / DBB
too close of a game for a crappy team (kings) missing their best player (kevin martin)
furthemore, iverson still didnt play defense
that being said, im being picky
- we get a win
- offensively iverson had a great, great game - 30 points, 9 assists (some nice ones ill admit, he also had some terrible passes tho), and 7 rebounds
- tayshaun (one of my fave players in the entire league) continues to impress… great defense, add 26 points, and 11 rebounds –> he’s been the only starter since the AI trade to play great consistently
- and despite the HORRID first quarter defensively (3rd quarter wasnt much better, giving up 27 points), we still limited them to 92 points - considering my barrometer for good defense was 90 points, not bad
- will bynum continues to impress… seriously…. i didnt expect much out of him at all this year lol
- no walter herrmann??? he’s one of my faves… disappointed in that
- arron afflalo back in the rotation?? sweeet… with rip struggling, that move shoulda been made a while ago
It was nice to see our offense get into a rhythm after the 1st quarter. We put up 32 in the 2nd and 25 in the 3rd and 4th.
I think Tay may be able to keep it up as well. He’s initiating the offense and being aggressive when he get’s the ball kicked out to him. Also, it seems Curry likes him to play a decent amount at the 4, so he’s going to have a good amount of bigger guys guarding him who he can take off the dribble.
Good win. Any news on why Herrmann was a DNP?
OT: Hawks are 6-0. I said in the season preview they were blah. I was wrong. I still think their depth sucks but they have very good young players who play hard and as a team.
I also agree about Tay being able to keep it up. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that even when he’s putting up 20+ a game, it doesn’t *feel* like he’s putting up 20+ a game. It’s still steady ‘ole Tayshaun, playing solid D, tipping out offensive rebounds, hitting open 3’s… he is definitely running the offense a bit more, though, which I love. I have to agree with Jamaal Mashburn on this one (who is, by the way, the best “player/analyst” ESPN’s ever put on TV), that Tayshaun is the guy who is going to benefit most from AI’s arrival.
All in all, a great game (other than the first quarter) and a snapshot of what I believe most games are going to look like later in the year when this team is fully gellin’ (like Magellen!).
I was extremely worried when we went small in the fourth. I thought we would get murdered in the post. However, that was the trick: Sac stopped moving the ball, and when the ball got bogged down, AI, Will, and Afflalo absolutely bulldogged the Kings. It was fun to watch. Those three have the potential to be a nasty defensive unit.
That said, this was an excruciating game because our defense was not consistent.
I’m glad Curry is sticking to his guns: Herrmann didn’t play, and I imagine it is because his performance in the past two games was not good at all. Afflalo, who was on the bench, got Strretch’s minutes. I take it it is up to Spellcheck to keep those minutes, and if he doesn’t perform, Strretch gets ‘em back… that’s not a bad way to run a team. For example, if Stuck doesn’t perform, he knows Bynum’s right there.
My nickname suggestion for Bynum: By’em. As in, “Bynum just blew by ‘em.”
Rob G - You are probably right about Afflalo and Herrmann fighting for minutes. There aren’t enough minutes that deep in the rotation to split effectively. I’m a big Afflalo fan so I’m not complaining. I just thought if Tay was going to play some PF in a small lineup that Fabio would play some as well. With Tay playing 43 minutes there is only so much time for subs anyway.
Good game for Iverson and Tay, although as Mannie32 says, Detroit was playing a mediocre team without its best player. I really hope Matt is right about what Tay will bring this year.
As to the three-guard offense, I know it worked down the stretch in this game, but it makes me nervous. Three guards and Tay, a 3, playing 4. That’s a very small lineup. I hope that’s not a regular thing, and I hope it’s not because Curry is coming to think that he has lots of good guards (count me as another impressed by Bynum) but not so many good bigs. The “big” bigs especially — Johnson and Brown — are they going to see a lot of crunch time? If not, I sure hope we get ‘Dyess back, because I don’t see winning in the eastern playoffs with a talented but significantly undersized unit on the flow.
The difference between Chauncey and AI - Chauncey runs a structured offense very well and AI allows the people around him to make plays. I actually think the guys will end up enjoying the AI-era even more. Rather than just having a play run for someone, they all have more of a chance to get involved based on the response of the defense.
I’m actually not worried about Rip at all. I think his problem is more in his head than anything else. He’s just bummed that Chauncey is gone so his game is off. Now that we have a win and Rip has seen how well Iverson can play, I think they’ll slowly start to mesh and he’ll get back to curling off screens and doing his thing.
I’ll continue holding judgment ’til later in the season. One thing I keep coming back to is that we need a true PG on the court running the show. AI isn’t it. Will Bynum has done excellent… so here’s my question: why do we NEED to start AI and Rip? Curry and his coaching staff seem to be on the right track: drifting toward Prince being Point Forward, so I’m still hopeful that we can come to beneficial equilibrium for all players, but I wouldn’t mind starting Stuckey over Rip then pulling Bynum and Rip off the bench. That is if Curry still wants to stick to his guns about Teyshaun being super-aggressive and attacking.
I guess my point is that a PG or Teyshaun needs to run our half court offense. Giving the ball to AI and allowing him and the rest of the players to improvise pseudo-organized chaos isn’t much of a strategy. In the half court, give it to the Point Forward/Guard at the top of the key. Run a play for Rip, AI, Sheed… or *GASP* Amir.
By the way, we might loosen up the defense a bit if we ran pick and rolls with Amir, had him roll to the basket, and ACTUALLY PASSED IT TO HIM. Even Larry Brown ran plays for Ben Wallace. Throw him a bone 3or 4 times a game and I think everyone benefits.
Anyways, this coaching staff seems more willing to change and roll with the punches than the last so I’ll be patient with their decisions. I suppose I’ll reserve addressing our defense for another post.
Rob G- Yes, Will By’em.
For all that can be said about this post trade Pistons team, and there’s a lot, I like that they still have their best basketball ahead of them. I love this teams roster, from AI to Kwame.
I’ve been disapointed in Afflalo’s play this season. I had hoped he’d be a little more aggressive looking for his shot.
Stucky’s health: Finding nothing wrong with his health isn’t THAT much better than finding a cause for his ailments.
Tay: He’s using the stutter & hesitation moves better than I’ve seen from him. Occasionally, he gets out of rhythm & takes an awkward looking shot, but I think his tempo will improve over the course of this season & he’ll be one of our 2 all-stars (Rasheed loves Brand in the east, & all star breaks in the Caribbean). I’ll look forward to seeing how aggressive TP is vs TheBron or Jefferson (big quick forwards)
Ok, so all of Tay’s shots are awkward looking.
I didn’t see last night’s game (I’m a Pistons ex-pat fan in Chicago) but a look at the box scores since AI’s been here reveals some things to me:
1) the team FG percentage is way down, which means to me they’re adjusting to a less-structured and more free-lance environment with AI in the game.
2) I think Rip is the least focused on the Pistons right now. The loss of Chauncey and the whole matter of the stolen money is affecting him. I hope he can adapt to AI’s free-lancing and put the theft behind him.
3) There’s been a huge change in FG difference since the trade. Through the first 4 games the Pistons were +59 in shot attempts. Since Iverson’s first game they are -9. Is this due to the adjustment period, or because of lessened offensive efficiency with AI?
At this point, I’m hoping the Pistons finish .500 for the rest of November, get some good practice time in, settle in on new rotations and get into a good rhythm in December.
Holy crap, did anyone notice the Nuggets gave Samb 4:24 of burn last night according to the box score? 0-3 w/2 boards. Whoa, slow down there ball hog, hope they were just missed put-backs to put up that many shots so quick.
I’m very glad for this win, but the initial struggle against a weak team wasn’t heartening. They did well past that, but even then, the defense was pretty poor. This D won’t cut it against the Suns or the Lakers.
It’s hard to isolate the effect of the coaching change because there are so many things going on, but I thought the Curry-led Pistons would struggle on offense at times but would defend incredibly well. So far, it’s been kind of the opposite. The Piston offensive efficiency is league leading, even with those stinkers against NJ and Boston, but they’ve been pretty crappy defensively.
LawyerBoy - Denver only had 9 players dressed which I’m sure contributed to Samb’s run. Hey, the Nuggets are 3-0 since they acquired Samb. They’re Awe-samb! Cheihk-tacular! OK..I’ll stop.
Michael Curry - If you can’t give Tayshaun a rest against John Salmons how are you going to keep him fresh against Paul Pierce and LeBron James?
Loving this new aggressive Tayshaun, by the way.
When I heard Prince was going to be point forward, I didn’t know he would literally be bringing the ball up the court. I don’t think that works with this lineup.
Moreso, I wouldn’t mind seeing a modified triangle that allows AI to get a look at a driving lane before letting Prince set it up from the wing.
This would make more sense, as Prince’s height and long arms allow him to find open guys on the weak side. He can also drive baseline and kick it out to Rip on the corner, or to Amir in the post.
But this is all going to take time to work out. Detroit is still playing like a jump shooting team. Allen Iverson is freelancing because he doesn’t have anything else to do.
The long term problem is rebounding. Our big men hauled down 12 rebounds in 60+ minutes of playing time. We won’t win anything if that doesn’t change.
“LawyerBoy - Denver only had 9 players dressed which I’m sure contributed to Samb’s run. Hey, the Nuggets are 3-0 since they acquired Samb. They’re Awe-samb! Cheihk-tacular! OK..I’ll stop.”
It is clear that the Nuggets have found their missing piece in Samb.
@Kevin S.:
“The long term problem is rebounding. Our big men hauled down 12 rebounds in 60+ minutes of playing time. We won’t win anything if that doesn’t change.”
I’m not a church-going fellow, but I’m going to call my local church and ask if they’ll mention McDyess’ name in their next mass/session. Blessed are the Pistons, for they shall inherit McDyess.
Very disappointing to see Amir Johnson’s play - all those lofty expectations we had coming in aren’t going to be realized, it seems.
Curry should tell Rasheed that for every two rebounds he gets he gets to shoot one tramp ball. The Pistons are 3-0 when ‘Sheed’s rebounds-to-3pt. attempt ratio is 2:1 or better.
I am still worried about the flow of the offense. is Rip the new Melo now that we got AI
So far so good.
Once Rip gets used to AI and vice versa we will have they big time scorers, who I guess will carry most of the load on offense most of the nights.
After Rip I think comes Sheed and then finally Amir as far integrating their offensive games with AI. However, with the big three I expect that on most nights Sheed and Amir will be looked to mostly for defense and other things like setting screens, tip outs on missed shots and hustle plays; i.e., blocks steals etc.
Bynum’s play doesn’t surprise me after what he showed in the LVSL after Stuckey banged up his toe and what Bynum showed in Israel last year playing in one of the better leagues in Euro competition.
AI’s aggressiveness is paying off. We won the game at the foul line. Does that remind anyone of another team that wins a lot of tames at the foul line. Hint: This other team wears green.
We have a good chance to win 3 out of 4 on this part of our extended road trip over 2 plus weeks. The one game at home in between the east coast road trip and the west coast road trip was really like a road game with basically another one night stand in between the two trips.
I expect the Lakers, who could be one of the best NBA teams of all time if they have no serious injures, will whip up pretty good on Friday. I have seen all of their games and this Laker team is totally awesome. Given that the Friday game will be the 3rd game on the west coast trip and 7th overall on this extended road trip, as well as the second of a back to back I expect the Lakers to win by 20 plus. I hope I am wrong. We shall see.
corr: it should have read “three big time scorers”
@Mike:
“I have seen all of their games and this Laker team is totally awesome. Given that the Friday game will be the 3rd game on the west coast trip and 7th overall on this extended road trip, as well as the second of a back to back I expect the Lakers to win by 20 plus. I hope I am wrong. We shall see.”
I’ll take your Pistons fan card now, please. Thanks.
Mike makes a good point about the free throw attempts. That kept the Pistons in the game long enough to steal it.
And, I’ve seen the Lakers play a couple times this year too. They look pretty great. Bynum doesn’t look like he’s lost much (if anything). Gasol seems to have grown a pair. Even Vlad Rad is playing defense. Kobe looks so rested going into the 4th now that he doesn’t have to score as much.
Enough of the Lakers love fest. Proposed DBB rule-Every positive lakers blog has to have at least 2 negative’s. I’ll start: the lakers have a lot of young talent. The zen masterbator will whore his way into the Hall on Kobe, MJ, & Shaq’s baq’s. (Making fun of his nickname & his career counts as 2)
Jimbo- “Very disappointing to see Amir Johnson’s play - all those lofty expectations we had coming in aren’t going to be realized, it seems.”
Not sure if your being sarcastic, but if ur not…
I’m happy with what amir’s done so far this season. He’s doing exactly what is expected, at least for those with logical expectations. Every fan base in the league has lofty expectations of a young “up & comer”. I’m guessing the expectations arise from fan desire to talk hoops, as well as what keeps people spending on lottery tickets, pumping coin into the slots, or letting it ride on…let it ride, the desire to hit it big. It’s fun and exciting, but not very realistic.
I started out in horror watching the opening quarter of last nite’s game. But, the one thing that AI and bynum and soon to be Stuck can do is get to the hole and draw fouls.
I think Rip will need a bit of adjustment just because Billups delivered (or knew where) the ball exactly in rythum (sp) for Rip’s shots coming off screens. That will hopefully change once AI knows where to be to pass the ball at the exact moment. But I do agree that perhaps Stuck starts and Rip (and soon to be Dyess) come in for the second unit. Between those two and Bynum, we’ve got 3 decent scorers, Kwame for down low D along with Max and then Fabio. I also think Rip’s head is a bit of a problem in that, for better or worse, he was viewed as the most important player of that starting five because of his scoring. He’s now #2. Plus, Billups made it a priority to allow Rip to run thru all those screens before going to option #2+ and I don’t think AI has that kind of patience.
Having watched the Lakers a few times this season, I really think we are going to get our clocked cleaned on Friday. I hate Phil and despise Sasha (two minimum per DaveJ-AA)
Rip is simply in a shooting slump. He will come out of it. AI, Rip and Prince appear to be the 1,2,3 scoring options right now, Sheed and Amir are rebouonders, Amir realizes this and plays his role very well, I would like to see him get more PT though. Rasheed too, is in a bit of a slump, problem is , I think he looks at himself as the number 2 or 3 scoring option vice a rebouder/defender, once he reallizes he is role player, and starts working the low post more, then he will get more shot attempts-afterall, didn’t Coach Curry express a STRONG desire to get more points in the paint? That won’t happen with Rsheed spending the majotity of his time floating out to 3 point land. Rip, Prince, Herrmann, AI all have pretty good range, we don’t Rasheed drifting out all the time (maybe 2-3 times a game max). This offense will be a lot more formidable when Rasheed stays low, (if) that happens, Amir benefits a lot from that, no one can guard Rasheed alone down low, this will open up Amir for some easy put backs or at the very least leave him wide open for some of AI,s/Prince’s/Rip’s/Bynum’s/Stuckey’s drive and dish’s.
All in all, the success of the current roster rests (in my opinion) on Rasheed Wallaace’s ability to stay down low.
Bynum nickname: Smoke. When he drives the lane, he is so damn fast all the defense sees is a puff of smoke.
For the Lakers to win by 7 with a +/- of -6 for Kobe…that’s scary.
Derek Fisher still isn’t any good and Odom will go nuts before the end of the year.
(one positive, two negatives)
Can I play too?
I like Trevor Ariza. I do not like Lamar Odom & Luke Walton.
I like Paula Abdul. I do not like Jack Nicholson & Arsenio.
I like James Worthy. I do not like Kurt Rambis & Byron Scott.
Not sure if this was mentioned, but another reason why Herrmann’s numbers may have been cut may be due to Curry feeling like his starting 5 needs to mesh and in order to do so, they need minutes on the floor.
This would explain Tay’s long minutes and AI’s long minutes. Of course the fact that Tay and AI were our two best players last night correlates with extended minutes as well, but I don’t think it is as much a fault of poor play by Herrmann as it is a coaching tactic to get more important players (ie - AI, Tay, Rip, Sheed) to get used to each other.
lemme try…
i think the lakers are going to kill a lot of teams this year.
i wish the staples center would be hit by a rocket during a sunday celtics/lakers match-up.
(i know technically that’s just one, but…)
mcdyess cleared waivers; he can resign with the pistons on december 7
We loves the Lakers. We hates them! My precious…
I’m gonna be a devil’s advocate here. I’m not buying this Lakers dominance thing. Of course I believe the Lakers are a really good team, but are they really as good as local radio in LA would have you believe? Who have the Lakers beat that made it out of the first round of the playoffs last year? Nobody. I can’t anoint them (or us, obviously) knowing that. If they beat the Hornets with the ease they’ve beat most other opponents, then I’ll be as impressed as everyone else. Until they wax Paul and co. tonight, I’m just gonna assume we’re gonna play them tough on Friday, maybe win, maybe lose.
I think this Lakers team will have trouble with smaller, quicker guards. Fortunately, we now have AI and Bynum. I don’t know who exactly on the Lakers will be able to combat their speed to the hole. The Lakers don’t have real speed at point guard. I think teams that do will make the Lakers’ defense vulnerable.
joejoejoe: Will you like Byron Scott if his Hornets bring the Lakers back to Earth tonight? And you like Paula Abdul? Really?
Shinons: If you wanna talk +/-, AI was the only Denver starter to have a + (+2) +/- against the Lakers last Saturday, which is weird, because Denver was never down by more than 5 until the last half of the 4th. LA really struggled to get a rhythm in the first 40 minutes of that game. Must’ve been the air.
Positives
1) The Lakers look unbeatable.
Negatives
1) They register more technical fouls than their opponents.
2) There is no way Josh Powell can keep this up.
i know during the comments last night i was paranoid about the small lineup. i feel like we dodged about 10 bullets in the 4th where the kings couldn’t get the ball to the mismatch in the post. one time the kings had hawes on bynum which is easily a foot difference in size!
that being said, it did take the kings out of their comfort zone, and kudos for curry to have the balls to try to pull something like that off. that being said (again), it was a desperate move that made me feel a little uncomfortable that we even had to resort to it. while i appreciate gameplanning and being able to adapt thru the course of a game, i liked when we could, as a team, say “screw you. we’re going to play our game and we dare you to try and stop us.” i want that attitude back.
“…perhaps spending his summer winning a gold medal with the Redeem Team made him realize he has star potential…”
huh? Tay barely averaged 10 minutes a game in Beijing.
“He barely averaged 10 minutes” a game as a integral part of a collection of All-Stars, let alone Hall of Famers (peace, Kevin S.), ahead of Boozer, Redd, and often, Kidd. After that, Tay has every right see himself as a upper-echelon scorer and defender and to conduct himself accordingly. If he fails; he fails - but what we want to see him do, maybe for the first time in his career - is dedicate himself to kickin’ ass.
The Lakers weren’t as good as Detroit last season. On paper what has changed for them this year other than a healthy Bynum? I’m serious, can someone more familiar with their team fill me in? For all of the hype I’ve heard about LA getting Bynum back it seems to me like it is barely more signifigant than Amir getting minutes. They’re good, but they were good last season. It doesn’t mean that they’re champions 10 games into the season.
That said I fully expect them to kill the Pistons on Saturday. By the time spring roles around it will be another story though.
Dude, I like Amir as much as the next fan, but Bynum’s a beast!
btw, one comment i neglected to make:
a.i. had the quietest 30 and 9 i’ve ever seen. i was shocked when i looked at the box score. especially with the added 7 boards and 2 steals.
“i liked when we could, as a team, say “screw you. we’re going to play our game and we dare you to try and stop us.” i want that attitude back.”
I would say that we don’t know what “our game” is right now. There is a lot that’s changed since last year. We have a new coach, new offensive system, Amir starting, the trade, different roles for some of our returning players, two new players…I completely agree with your premise, but I don’t think we’ll have our true identity as a team until McDyess has been back (hopefully) for 20 games or so.
I was suggesting less that Amir is some kind of superstar and more that LA’s addition of Bynum, who is good but hardly a beast, has been somewhat overrated. That’s all I meant.
“The Lakers weren’t as good as Detroit last season. On paper what has changed for them this year other than a healthy Bynum? I’m serious, can someone more familiar with their team fill me in?”
FIrst of all, a healthy Bynum is huge. He’s got great hands, great footwork and he affects a lot of shots. The kid’s a stud. And his presence allows Odom to play with the second unit and be more aggressive.
Also, Trevor Ariza is healthy. He gives them an athletic defender and one of the best rebounders at his position.
Gasol is playing so much tougher this year.
So is Radmanovic.
Overall, they just look like a team that’s bought into the idea that they need to be tougher defensively to win a championship.
If Amir gave us the same production that Bynum gives the Lakers, we’d be sizing up a spot for the #25, right up there by The Microwave.
I don’t think his return can be overrated. That’s a seven-foot, prototype center, man.
Not trying to start a pissing match. I think he’s a big addition, though.
“The Lakers weren’t as good as Detroit last season. On paper what has changed for them this year other than a healthy Bynum? I’m serious, can someone more familiar with their team fill me in?”
They are 35-9 since they got Gasol, and have won their last six by an average of 20 ppg.
Thanks QD.
And sorry Keegan, I think I’m probably just getting stubborn and cranky.
hi! finally! we won! no matter how it was played, its still a win and an encouraging one. didn’t get to read all of the comments, but just like to share some of my thoughts:
What’s with Rip? is he really off? or it is he just his way of showing or venting his frustrations to the trade? or he is still adjusting to ai?
Amir hasn’t performing well since ai came it? he seems to be at a total lost.
from these games in the ai era, settling in, emotionally and as a team in general, may take a bit longer than i expect. the whole vision that curry has for the team with billups as point may no longer be applicable for this new set up. new roles may have to be set up.
LA are playing well at the moment. I dont see them dominating or even winning the whole damn show. Gasol is and always will be a pansy and KG eats his shit for breakfast. I hate Boston. I hate LA.
Pistons win it all.
K, thanx.
No one has mentioned this specifically, but Bynum is averaging 2.8 blocks in under 30 minutes per game. He had a pair in the first few minutes of the first tonight against New Orleans.
Not trying to pile it on to Michael, but his presence on the floor is so important. No getting around that. That being said, apparently the Lake Show heard me doubting them and are trying to make me eat my words. I mean, New Orleans is getting a whoopin’ in the first half.
it is really weird seeing Shaq in a Suns’ uniform… almost like seeing Barkley and Pippen in a Rockets uniform
oh and, Bynum has a chance to be a great low post player. He is a big body who has made significant improvements since being selected in the draft.
If he can develop something in the mid-range, he can be more effective than Dwight Howard… I think.
Unlike what Ben Q. Rock would have you believe, Howard is a bit of a one trick pony and is less than what Shaq has been at any point of his early career.
Boney, I hear you on the wierdness…kinda like Chauncey in a Nuggets uni and AI as Pistons #1 eh?
it is weird seeing AI in a Piston uniform, I’m not gonna lie.
I’m a fan of anyone who dons the Red Blue and White
unless Samuel Dalembert becomes a Piston because… well… that is one ugly mofo
@Boney:
Apparently Howard heard your statement and disagrees with you, via his triple double tonight. 30 points, 19 rebounds, 10 blocks (with just one turnover).
He’ll be TheBasketballJones’ “whoa boy” tomorrow. Book it!
He’s still a one trick pony on the offensive end.
If he can’t dunk it on someone’s head, he sure as hell ain’t gettin’ at the free throw line.
His inability to develop anything more than a thunderdunk has caused the Magic to play poorly when it really matters.
If he had a jumpshot, he could at least pumpfake it to the rack with a 2 handed thunderdunk. Right now, he’s nothing more than a Tyson Chandler type who hangs out around the rim and waits for a rebound or an alley oop for a dunk.
I disrespect his game like this because I find it to be extremely boring that a guard cuts the lane and throws it up for an alley oop (see 2006 Eastern Conference Finals - D Wade and Shaq, 2008 New Orleans Hornets Chris Paul and Chandler, among others).
Yeah, Bynum has a much more refined offensive game that Dwight. He’s got a nice jump hook and it looks like he’s developing a turnaround. His footwork is really great for someone who hasn’t played a lot of basketball. Kareem has taught him well.
honestly, i really don’t like seeing Allen Iverson wearing the detroit jersey and to add insult to injury, the number 1(really boils my blood)…
I just hope this will turn out alright, the Cavs are leading central for the moment and that worries me a bit…
The lakers are not showing wear and tear
the boston wanting not just one champioship
and the hawks, well, we’ll see where they go from here
Cavs have played 2 good teams this year, and lost to them both. They shouldn’t scare us. We smash the Magic pretty regularly, they shouldn’t scare us. Atlanta is a bunch of hyper-athletic pretenders. They shouldn’t scare us. Philly is a team of second-fiddles. They shouldn’t scare us. Toronto has a black hole at the 2 and 3. They shouldn’t scare us. In the end, I have no doubt it’s us and Boston again.