I’ll post some pictures from Friday’s DBB Suite Night later today, but for now here’s a nifty game preview from Kevin. Ball tips at 3 PM on Fox Sports — do your thing in the comments. — MW
By Kevin Sawyer
Trailblazers: 11-6 (4-6 away)
Margin: +5.1 ppg (2.8 away)
Last 10: 7-3 (margin +11.0)
Pistons: 10-5 (5-2 home)
Margin: +0.9 ppg (+1.0 home)
Last 10: 6-4 (margin -1.9)
Oppo research:
So far, so good for the Blazers, who boast the second best record in the Western Conference. They’re on a roll after dropping the Hornets by 16 on Friday night. Don’t let the road record fool you either; the Blazers are outscoring their opponents by nearly three points per game away from Portland, and have seen little drop-off in production despite a tough road slate.
Coach Nate McMillan uses a deep rotation, with only two starters averaging more than 30 minutes per game. Part of this is a function of necessity – his two centers average 6.4 fouls per game in 44 minutes of play. But Portland has the talent to pull it off. Ike Diogu and coveted rookie Jerryd Bayless have been tethered to the 11th and 12th man spots.
Portland has seen improbable success from a trio of rookies: Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum. They are also shooting a ridiculous 42% from the three point stripe, and Joel Przybilla is shoot 83% from the field. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge will keep doing what they do, but a regression to the mean may well be in order. No time like the present, eh?
Still this is a talented team of dangerous shooters, which keeps fresh legs on the court at all times.
Keys for Detroit:
Keep the ball away from the bigs:
For Oden, this means getting him off the court with foul trouble. For Przybilla, this means exploiting his high turnover rate. Rebounding has been a problem for the Pistons, and we can expect these two to easily win that battle, so the goal is to limit their effectiveness in other areas.
Stop the three:
The Pistons are among the league’s best in making teams put the ball on the floor. While some teams have exploited the Pistons’ lack of help defense, Portland doesn’t have the personnel to make Detroit pay at the free throw line. Let Brandon Roy get his, and make the rest of the guys earn it.
Annex the paint
Portland’s interior defenders are tall, but they don’t defend particularly well. Feeding Sheed, Maxiell, Brown and Amir in the post will take Oden out of the game, opening up the lane for Detroit’s dribble penetration.
Question of the game:
Allen Iverson was very productive in limited minutes. While he will almost certainly take back the starting job after a quick hiatus, Michael Curry had to like what he saw between Iverson and Walter Herrmann. Will we see more of Iverson with the second unit?
Do we still have the sellout streak going?
Deeetroooiit Baaasketbaaaaalllll!!!!
I know the question will come soon, so: http://www.justin.tv/ender195
Link to the game
Lets go Stones!
Just a thought, but Blazers are 7-0 at the Rose Garden, and 4-6 away from it right now.
That feed is making my eyes hurt.
Its like claymation basketball!
Very cold shooting to start.
this feed is better quality http://www.justin.tv/mordane3
yes thats better
Curry just put in The Future vs. Portland
Apparently the Pistons didn’t read my oppo research.
Anyone get the feeling Curry just has no idea and threw the bench in as a screw it kind of move?
I think he did it because the starters aren’t doing anything. Not hustling, not moving the ball. So it was time to make a change and go zoo crew.
and amir got a call to go his way!?! Am I dreaming?
Walter is playing very well. Curry should give him many more minutes.
Dumb putback by Amir.
Damn flight delays, now I’m only going to see the second half. Starters sucking?
Sheeeed!
Fiiiiddy!!
Good for the bench. I didn’t see the 1st quarter which must have been ugly. I love Stuckey’s energy and attacking, but man he gets stuffed a lot when he drives relentlessly at a big man.
Sheed.
thank you ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssstuckey!!!! with the nice defense and offense
I think pulling the starters and going all bench is pretty much what Curry said he would do at the beginning of the season. I definitely liked it. They weren’t getting it done. Of course, if the bench hadn’t come through, I might be singing a different tune.
Kwame > G.O.
15-0 run. gotta love the Zoo Crew.
I take back my prior comment. Curry must know something about this Stuckey kid
if stuckey can continue to play like this, i may finally get over kbillups being gone haha
why is AI back in the game?
My theory is that Curry wants the starters to rest the bench so that Stuckey can take over in the 4th.
Yeah.
wtf is AI doing on defense? i just saw him out there on that last possession literally guarding no one……
Wtf, did portland just make every shot in the last 4 minutes? Did the starters come back in and play shitty d?
Curry didn’t have the team prepared for this game. These wide-open threes are ridiculous.
I just got to watch the last six minutes and WHY is Kwame Brown playing so much! He is soo awful. He’s not gonna get better. He has all the talent in the world but he is a lazy dumbshit bum. He won’t move! And if he did, he wouldn’t know where to go, which is prolly why he doesn’t move.
With how the Blazers have been shooting lately, plus Detroit still a long ways away from playing good defense, this type of game wasn’t that hard to see coming…
Luckily there’s still a 2nd half. I’d like to see Curry let the younger guys get some extended minutes this game to see what they can do against some of the other strong youths of the league.
I only saw a few minutes, but it seemed like Kwame played decent. Did get abused a couple times on high S/R, but I wouldn’t call it awful. But I may have missed him sucking when I wasn’t watching. Plus Amir had 3 fouls, so it was Max or Kwame. Max would have guarded S/R better most likely but we were getting hammered on Offensive glass and Kwame is superior rebounder.
“I just got to watch the last six minutes and WHY is Kwame Brown playing so much! ”
Kwame Brown does things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Except turnovers. They show up.
“Curry didn’t have the team prepared for this game. These wide-open threes are ridiculous.”
As a Portland resident I see this team do that pretty regularly. I wouldn’t put all the blame on Curry. The Blazers have a way of creating those shots and they’ve been making them against everyone. The flat offense from the starters has more to do with it.
LOL at kevin s’s comment
but i was one of the biggest kwame haters, trust me… but he’s played fine so far for the pistons i must admit… i thought he played well in the first half today… no complaints
AI on the other hand… so frustrating, cuz he has so much talent, and i know he has the ability to play better defense, but he just doesnt… i dunno why
Whoever said Curry has no clue and just throws things in for the sake of throwing things in, is right. He’s done it since the start of the season. One would like to think, he’s tinkering and sorting his rotation out during this first month. My guess is he’s all like “fuck it.” Cant say it makes us boring though.
Shame bout the 1st quarter, hopefully we can put the pressure on them in the 3rd qtr.
jesus christ AI is pissing me off… another blake drive to the basket, with AI trailing the entire play… wasnt even a screen on that play
Curry needed to start Stuckey and Afflalo in the second half instead of Iverson and Rip.
So we’re adding Steve Blake to the list of players who can light up Iverson?! Motherfucker.
I have a feeling in my bones…
rip startin to get his groove back baby!
Rip creating on the break. Almost traveled, but got Tay a layup. Where’s Boney?
Also something that Kwame Brown does that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet: draw fouls. If only he could make a free throw shot more than once every few games it’d be a lot more potent of a weapon.
We’re so winning this game.
…we will pull this out.
Don’t sweat it TDP, when we start using “my grandmother” references when discussing who can light up Iverson, then you know a motherfucker response is probably deserved.
Until then, it’s all cool baby.
My GMAT on the revison on the other hand, not so hopefully.
Old Sheed put New Sheed on his butt.
Cronus, you’re right. I should have appreciated the fact the Ridenour didn’t light up Iverson the other night.
smh@ me not putting a coherent sentence together…
Classic Detroit Defense. We took it back to 2004 with that one.
We really match up badly with Iverson in there…
Nice hustle by big little hand man
sigh
Ed Malloy can suck my balls.
lol@ Iverson gaurding Pryzbilla on that last play. lol@ the defense
If this was 99-01, he would have banked that in.
Iverson passed on the 2 on 2 situation, but attacks when it’s 3 on 4? Yuck…
I now regret buying tickets for a Sunday game in February.
That Sheed block was Ben on Zo like.
thank you… finally we yanked AI outta there
STUCK-NUTTS!
Nice trap by Afflalo and Stuckey!
Close enough.
Captain Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip
Nice hustle, Amir! Hooray!
Amirzing
Come on boys!
Brandon Roy vs. Afflalo is a nice match-up.
Sheeed!
i have a heterosexual man crush on stuckey
Sheed’s got to be talking that miss up. Ball dont lie fellas.
Amiiir!
AMIR!!!!!
Amiiiiiiiiiir!
I have one on the entire bench
This lineup is absolutely killing the Blazers! We look better with Stuckey running the show, no doubt in my mind.
Energy. Energy. Im buzzed!
This game is fun
Stuckey falls in love with dribbling out on the perimeter too much, if he could take that out of his game, he’ll be making all-star trips in no time.
Not that having someone like Iverson to learn from now helps in the least on the matter…
You think Chicago wants to rethink its Aldridge/Thomas swap?
These guys will drain you with there treys. Damn.
This a fucking stupid lineup Curry.
I wish amir took charges…
Hey you know who would have made that?
It almost looked like he didnt touch him.
Dear nba, the foul you just called on amir is committed by kevin garnett on every celtics offensive possession.
Cheers,
Forty
Knew this was a stupid lineup. Too small coach numbnuts.
Too small perhaps?
stucky is trying to hard. he is dribbling with no clue where he is gonna go. why take rip out? he was on fire. get the ball to herman on the wing, that’s why he is out there… jesus do something
No heart.
Damn….
No clue.
Boy if that isnt symbolic of everything
…and back to football.
Guess I was wrong. Entertaining game anyways.
shoot when your open stucky you fucking rook
Curry really is an idiot. Even Flip’s adjustments werent that stupid.
AI is so gone after this season lol
sigh
looks like we’re back to .500 in the post-AI era
I don’t like losing with Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton, and Rasheed Wallace on the bench. Come on Mike, at some point you’re acting like Charlie Weis and being clever for clever’s sake with these lineups.
It’s really impressive how you can let your team go on, what, a 0-13(?) run to end the game and make absolutely no adjustments.
he´s giving up with that 4Q lineups
wtf
Even though its a loss, I was very happy with the bench. The starters need to have a group therapy session and really talk some shit out. Im looking at you Rip.
stucky shows so much potential, however he also make rookie mistakes. twice he passed off to deep in the paint on a fast break, also he missed some fts that were key. he will be fine, just a matter of learning.
also shouldn’t we be trapping down 8 here?
0-4 on Sundays
not an afternoon of magic
Curry needs to address the 1st quarter now. You cant spot a team a big lead and expext to come back every time. Maybe Amir should start again.
nice to see blaha and k giving credit to the blazers
they really have a nice squad
Agreed Jay, they are good now and only going to get better. Pritchard!
The clock is ticking on the adjustment period, here.
Iverson was a minus 30
Yes folks a -30
This guy is a definite turd.
Agreed, we can only spot AI and Curry so much time with that.
Maybe Amir should start again.>>
Amir should continue to be where Stuckey is.
If Stuckey starts then Amir should start
If Stuckey comes off the bench then Amir should come off the bench.
Tay and Rip never pass the ball to Amir and AI is a head case.
Don’t be a jerk, Mike. AI had only -28
Curry needs to address himself, that small lineup change in the 4th was stupid. Even Blaha and K were like WTF?
Slow starts are bad of course, what else is new with his team? But we were leading in the 4th with a specific lineup and changed it up to a small non-D playing club that got bodied inside and outside.
Why the f*** did I buy League Pass?!
Also as a childhood Iverson fan, its depressing to see what’s happened to him.
not an afternoon of magic, indeed. This sucked, but there were spurts in this game that really had me excited. At the end of the 3rd beginning of the 4th we played great D and were really taking it to the hole. We are slightly less reliant on jump shooting to win. Everyone is being pretty hard on Curry’s rotation, but most of us disliked flip’s rotations because they were too tight. That line-up with Hermann where he got stuck with Roy was terrible, but aside from that I really like the mix he had going. Also, thought he should have left Rip in. He definitely made some mistakes, but I’m willing to take that since I wanted more meaningful bench minutes. If this sort of thing is still going on in February, then it’s time to be worried. One area that Curry does deserve criticism is Sheed continuing to float on the perimeter. He talked a big talk about putting Sheed in the post but he might actually be playing more on the perimeter than last year. That shit drives me up a wall.
Amir did a great job today setting picks.
That one in the 4th quarter that he got called for the foul on was as Blaha or Kelser said due to Stuckey not waiting until Amir was stationary before making his move.
Other than that Amir did a great job at setting picks for Stuckey and opening up the lane for him to get to the basket.
The two of them play well together.
————————-
Unless Herrmann is making 3 point shots he is useless.
@ TDP:
So you can watch better teams.
Don’t be a jerk, Mike. AI had only -28
Well ist was at a minus 30. LOL
I think that the Pistons best lineup is
Sheed
Amir
Rip
Stuckey
Prince
Iverson had 9 points on 9 shots and was efficient at the stripe. He had only 1 TO. While he was certainly not great today, it was hardly an unmitigated disaster.
There seems to be a consensus that Stuckey was wildly better today, but he had 5 ast/5 TO. Looks to me like the production from PG was just generally not great today…
“Unless Herrmann is making 3 point shots he is useless”
the same could be said of Ray Allen…
“Unless Herrmann is making 3 point shots he is useless”
the same could be said of Ray Allen…>>
I’ll drink to that
I still think that this team is too talented to keep losing and I think that given time they will be a very good team. But today, for an instant, I wished that AI would break an ankle and be gone for the rest of the season.
Forgive me Pistons nation.
I could have gone for an afternoon of magic. Oh well.
Curry seems to be a big fan of boutique lineups. If Iverson wants to take a dump on our season, there isn’t much Curry can do about it…
But it is ludicrous to have Kwame start for this team when Amir outperforms him night after night. It is ridiculous not to find real minutes for Herrmann when he has been our most effective offensive player.
I wasn’t a fan of Flip’s firing, and this is why. Curry was clueless today. There is more to coaching than just yapping about hustle.
That 4th quarter with Herrmann as the PF was horrible.
They have no idea what they want to do on offense. Give it to a guard and have the guard take a jumper or drive and hope something good happens is not an offense. Do they actually run, you know, PLAYS, anymore?
“I think that the Pistons best lineup is Sheed, Amir, Rip, Stuckey, Prince”
Mike,
I agree with you. However, I don’t mind interchanging Amir & Kwame depending on the matchups. I do believe that Stuckey should be starting. Stuckey has proven that he can run the team. AI could come off the bench and do what he does best — score. Will someone please join me in a movement to start Stuckey!
LaMarcus Aldridge continues his tradition of lighting up the Pistons. Dude is good.
G.O.>>>>>>>>>>Kwame
Amir plays a lot better with Stuckey and vice versa.
If you saw the picks that Amir was setting tody for Stuckey except for that one in which he was called for a foul because Stuckey didn’t wait for Amir to get set, Stuckey and Amir work really well together.
Amir is a lot quicker than Brown so Stuckey can take more advantage of Amir’s getting to the spot quicker and setting the picks than he can with Brown. With Amir setting the picks it doesn’t give the defense that much time to get set because Amir can get to the spot a lot quicker than Brown.
I just don’t think Amir and AI are a good combination for a number of reasons.
Amir hasn’t played that much with Bynum so I can’t comment on that.
Personally I am more comfortable with Brown starting simply because Amir is still picking up too many quick fouls. Whether those are questionable calls is besides the point.
Anyway it is who finishes and not who starts.
I would have no problem with Curry starting Bynum ahead of AI and turning AI into a Marbury Man.
Whether Amir will ever be able to get his foul problem under control only time will tell.
He is just so damn active that he puts himself a lot more often in position for a foul to get called on him than other players do. Hopefully, over time he can get a better handle on his foul rate and be able to play 30 plus minutes. In the meantime I think it is better for Amir to come off of the bench.
The team talented but it kinda lacks leadership as well. Its weird.
By the way the most depressing thing was watching NBA Fastbreak last night on ESPN. They were talking about who was gonna compete in this east and win at year’s end. Didnt even mention the Pistons at all. Like not even to acknowlege there decline. Nothing. No mention whatsoever. Didnt even mention them as a darkhorse.They said Cleveland, Boston and Orlando.
I know thats just the facts, but after in the mix for years, its pretty weird seeing the change. :/
Ya’ll can yell at me if you want but I honestly can’t not say this:
If you take the game vs LA out of the equation doesn’t it seem like we beat AWFUL teams and get killed whenever we play anyone good?
I realize that’s probably oversimplfying but it DEFINATELY seems to me that we can’t handle balanced teams with multiple scoring options. We let WAY WAY WAY too many guys who aren’t that good “Go absolutely off” and if the opposition ALSO gets secondary scoring from someone else, we just can’t make it back up fast enough.
This doesn’t even LOOK like the team I’ve been watching the past few years that’s for sho…
*waits for Mike Payne, Forty, and LawyberBoy to begin their turn-around scenarios*
Matt, it’s pretty clear why you won’t address the criticisms that have surrounded this team for years…your so emotionally delicate that the thought of people calling out the baseless and moronic theories presented by yourself and some of the fans on this site is too much for you to overcome.
Before he died, George Carlin warned of the “pussification” of the American male.
You Matt, along with some of this site’s most prominent posters are a bunch of goddamn pussies…
I thank you for creating this site for one reason; it’s made me realize that while Detroit prides itself on its “blue collar”, “hard-working”, tough-nosed defensive, no man is above the team and no fan is above the principal mentality is, well, for the most part, that perception is a complete crock of shit.
Thank you for that Matt Watson.
And thanks to the rest of you as well, you’re finally getting the team you deserve.
mike,
I wouldn’t turn AI into a Marbury Man just yet, but I do understand your frustration. I think Stuckey would get us off to better starts and we wouldn’t have to come from behind so much. If Stuckey was our starter, we would look more like the team we’ve grown accustomed to watching.
I agree with PG4L. This team is mediocre even with Iverson, and I think the main reason it seems like this is because we don’t play defense anymore.
2008-09
PF PA Diff
96.7 96.6 +0.1
2007-08
97.5 90.1 +7.4
PG4L: There’s also the win against the Cavs. Which was followed up by big losses to Boston and Minnesota. The team is like night and day, but thinking on it, the Lakers and the Cavs were the only wins this season that were impressive.
I’m not sure if anyone has seen, or mentioned, the True Blue Pistons post about Sunday’s game against the Blazers (and I’m not going to scroll up to find out), but here it is…
http://truebluepistons.blogspot.com/
Langlois enlightens us about why Curry sat the starters. Also, was anyone else aware of a Tayshaun-Curry feud?
Here’s to a December like that of 2007! (Right…)
Oh christ curry, now it’s tayshaun’s fault?
Right now I see a low seed, first round exit team. I still favor the trade, but I don’t see a lot of hope for more than that.
They can still get better, but sacrifices must be made and I haven’t seen the will to do that.
Tayshaun has good reason to complain. As he mentioned, he is playing out of positon as a point forward! Tayshaun’s out of position and Rip can’t find a rhythm. Curry could rectify the problem by starting Stuckey. We are 3-0 when Stuckey starts.
Tay should have played more; sheed is the one that is playing too many minutes and it shows; however, with sheed, curry has no choice; curry seems a bit overwhelmed.
This is the same guy who took the blame for a loss a while back? A preseason one, at that?
vivian,
I agree that Curry is overwhelmed. He had the team well prepared for the season and then we traded Chauncey, our leader. Let’s not forget that we started off 4-0 before AI joined the team. Dumars has said that he wants Curry to trust his instincts. His instincts have got to be telling him that it can’t work with AI at starting point guard. This is why I believe that Curry may have to make a bold move and start Stuckey over Iverson to make this thing work.
@Detroit Pistons Fans: Welcome to the Allen Iverson Paradox
He is one of the best scorers in league history, so anyone would want him on their team…But he’s too small to guard a SG and he’s too slow, or maybe too lazy, to guard a PG. So he may also be one of the biggest defensive liabilities in league history.
The same thing has happened with every team he’s been on.
During timeout with six minutes left in a close game:
Curry: “OK, team, we’re playing pretty well, so I’m going to change the lineup. I’m going with Iverson, Hamilton, Stuckey, Herrmann and Amir. Why 3 shooting guards a small forward and a power forward? Honestly, I have no clue. You see team, I know that the game of basketball is played with five players playing different positions and each have significant individual roles. But maybe we should do things differently. I mean, this way we should score a lot, right? Sure it leaves Amir to be the only one to defend bigs, defend the interior, set picks, and defensive rebound - but it should work. Plus, I think Walter Herrmann has to be the best guy to guard this LaMarcus Aldridge fellow.”
Timeout with 3 minutes left and the game all but out of reach:
Coach Curry: “Guys you’re playing like crap out there. Herrmann, Aldrige shot right over you. Seriously, grow four inches so you can defend him. Amir, I saw you trying to get a rebound but there were three guys in black shirts trying to get one too. What’s up with that? Can you give a little effort? Well, at least now I can I’m better than Flip because I can play the young players. And you shooting guards why aren’t you scoring? Isn’t that what you’re suppose to be good at? Sure there is no one to pass it to you, and no one for you to outlet to, and no one for you to pass it to down on the block - but you guys are suppose to score.”
People have pointed out that the team is 3-0 when Stuckey starts. Blaha seems to be in love with the guy. He reminds me of Hubie Brown talkin’ about CP3 in last year’s playoffs. Gag. Blaha was throwing out plus minus - but every time Stuckey was on the floor usually so was Affalo as well as other reserves. I will say this - Stuckey plays much much much better when he plays with the starters - that isn’t to say he should start. I think this is because he doesn’t feel the need to be the number one offensive option. Stuckey has an amazing ability to get to the hoop but when he plays with the reserves he usually tries to finish it off on his own, which typically has been ugly this year, real real ugly, but with the starters he passes more frequently. It seems like all Stuckey has to do is get to the hoop for one dunk and all the other errant attempts, all the other forces, all the other drives to the hoops when a Prince or Hermmann is waiting for the dish out but instead Stuckey gets fouled and makes 1 of 2 from the line, are forgiven. The guy, a fifth of the way through the season, is shooting under 40% and leads the teams in turnovers per 48. Making Stuckey a starter would only work because when A.I. plays with the reserves he has been a willful facilitator - Hermmann against the Bucks. Stuckey tries to make too much happen on his own, seems more selfish, forces - but like I said, with the starters plays a more under control version of his game - which then is pretty nice. Thing is Iverson can do everything Stuckey can do but better - he can get dribble penetration whenever he wants, plus he can hit wide open jumpers - Stuckey rarely does. Curry should define Stuckey’s role as an “aggressive point guard” coming off the bench and team would be in better shape.
I thought all 4 bigs played great tonight. Maxiel didn’t even get a shift in the second half. Thing is - they only play well when two of them are out there at the same time. Iverson and Stuckey, as good as getting into the lane as they are, can’t stop other quick guards from doing so and this penetration is setting stuff up for the bigs on these teams. With the guards on opposing teams penetrating like that a big has to move over and after the pass it leaves a horrible mismatch. Two of Maxiel, Brown, Amir or Sheed need to be in the game.
As much as I dislike Stuckey’s game - I do think Stuckey-Afflalo-Herrmann-Maxiel-Amir would beat our current lineup of A.I.-Hamilton-Prince-Sam Perkins-Kwame Brown. I’d be surprise if there is much dispute over that. Main reason - defense, energy and rebounding. If Curry wants to be the coach he said he was going to be he should continue leaving Prince on the bench - as he did nothing when he was in the game to deserve to be played just because he’s Tayshaun Prince. His mistake is he doesn’t play the matchups and the game of basketball is all matchups.
I do have to agree with what is being said about this team really only having two good games. Their recent wins came against a Bucks with Redd and Bogut and Knicks team that is still the Knicks - so it is now a long stretch of very unbalanced basketball. But, I do think the pieces are there if played in their positions and to the matchups.
I think it’s been long enough to just say it.
the AI trade got us playing worse.
When Dyess gets back it might improve us a bit but i think we will lose our swagger and our confidence by that time.
too bad…
and not i’m not being hysterical
On the other side of the trade, Billups has been doing his thing and the Nuggets are tied for 3rd in the west. People questioned whether he could play at Denver’s higher pace, but he’s really had no problems.
I know this team and the coach are still figuring things out, and the trade theoretically gives them a higher ceiling, but early returns haven’t been good.
concerned piston fan here again, looks to me more and more like we are turning into the carbon copy chicago bulls…..cant make a shot if our lives depend, cant make a comeback, cant beat the good teams, losing games on our home floor that we should be winning. I say bring back ma man Flip to coach, give Maxiell more playing team, tell sheed to get his ass underneath and start rebounding and posting up and if he doesnt do it bench him, and give Iverson the green light to score at least 30 points a game like he used to and we will be alright.
I think Stuckey was great yesterday (even though he had 5 TO). I really liked his energy. We were a better team with him running the point (at least yesterday). Plus it was a close game whenever he was on the court. The same can’t be said for A.I. We were down by 10 every time he was running the show.
Tayshaun played only 22 minutes?! I can’t figure this out.
I’m not going to blame Curry, yet. He has a bunch of pieces that don’t go well together. He has a lot of good guards, but none of them are true point guards, much less top-flight point guards. Stuckey is still inexperienced and he’s a “shoot first” kind of guy, and AI isn’t a true point guard either. Curry also has a woeful lack of consistently productive big men. ‘Sheed is ‘Sheed, which is mostly very good, except he doesn’t like post offense. No other big on the Pistons has anything like a consistent offense of any kind, and Maxiell and Johnson are both, in different ways, undersized (height and bulk, respectively). Tayshaun is solid but there’s still no consistently good backup for him. Afflalo is tough-minded but undersized at SF and not a great offensive player, Herrmann is very inconsistent.
So Curry goes small a lot because he has more good small players than good big players, but the small players don’t always mesh well together, because they are all jump shooter/sometimes slashers. Which makes it look as if they don’t run plays.
Meanwhile, you can’t play consistently good defense if you are significantly undersized at most positions.
McDyess will help some with the bigs, but Detroit, to have any chance this year at all, will need somebody to play point guard qua point guard, and will also need better production out of some combination of Maxiell/Johnson/Brown.
Marbury will be available soon…
ai is an explosive player. but he must be leading feature. the pistons play team basketball. this seems like a contradiction if one assumes ai must play better part of game. but maybe he would be better to as change of tempo and in twenty minute range. that way he could use his energy in more concentrated bursts as well as not clash with the pass oriented offense. maybe he would be better with the zoo crew who are more wild by nature. let stuckey play with the vets.
Last night’s loss was on Curry. It was 80-82 with 5:51 remaining. Fast forward to 2:28 remaining, and it’s 80-93. Curry had Rip and Tay sitting on the bench like he’s passive-aggressively trying to teach them some kind of lesson and while the team can’t buy a bucket, Amir is fighting for offensive rebounds against three different Blazers - one of which being Greg Oden, who’s kinda sorta big - while Sheed watches from behind the arc.
In our 6 losses, the average margin of victory for the opposing team is 15.3 points. That is not good coaching. I’m not going to go and say fire him or anything, but if he manages to turn Tayshaun “All-American Team Player and Straight A Student (Probably)” Prince sour, then I’ll be ready to call him the Darko of coaching decisions.
Juicebox makes some good points. Writes long posts, but makes some good points.
To throw in my $0.02, I just looked at 82games.com and our five-man floor unit stats- the thing that stood out is that there is not a single line-up combination with AI and Rip together in the backcourt that has a positive plus/minus. The two line-ups that have a positive plus/minus and both AI and Rip on the court at the same time are when we play Stuckey or Afflalo along with them, and shift Tay out of position to PF. These two line-ups have been good so far, but they force us into playing two players out of position- Tay and either Rip or Spellcheck, which I think in the long run will hurt us more than help (wears Tay down, and probably just isn’t a strategy that will work once teams are expecting and game planning for it).
It’s still early in the season, so the players haven’t played enough minutes for plus/minus numbers to be at all conclusive- but I think it’s a good reflection of what all of us are seeing. Basically, at this point Rip and AI haven’t worked as a backcourt- not saying it can’t click later, just that it hasn’t clicked yet.
IMO, the trickle down effect from the problems/poor results of the AI and Rip backcourt is central to why our team has had these crazy swings- because we have had some line-up combinations that have been very effective, but they rarely involve both AI and Rip together. This is a big problem because they both play enough minutes that they are on the court together for long stretches of every game. So watching stones, they have a kinda roulette feel, where our standard line-up: AI+Rip+Tay+Sheed+KB/Amir=? will struggle, but then we sometimes “hit” with some random group that makes game competitive or wins it.
Our best starting line-up, and IMO, steadiest combo so far has been: Stuck+Rip+Tay+Sheed+Amir. Subjectively this line-up has looked better than the others- Stuck and Amir have P&R=$ chemistry, Rip seems more comfortable, Tay doesn’t have to oscillate between PF and point guard, Sheed can comfortably launch bombs knowing Amir is there to board. But, (happy news!) that doesn’t mean I think AI should be outcast, one thing that is clear from plus/minus and subjectively from watching, is AI and Afflallllooo have played well together and seem to compliment each other- getting them minutes on the court together should be a Curry priority.
Generally, speaking of Curry, I would be more comfortable with him if he applied a little more consistency to his own coaching. He definitely seems to be a “ride the hot hand” type of coach, rather than a Flip style “sticking with my big guns” coach. I think holding people accountable for crappy/lazy play is important. I think throwing out the occasional small ball line-up can work. But, more important is knowing what is gonna work/win over the long haul and getting players to buy into that. A lot of the short-term strategies Curry has used seem kinda like “fools gold” to me- does anyone really think we’re gonna win anything with K. Brown starting, or with random tiny ball line-ups that play at a minimum 2 players out of position? If he would do away with the gimmicks and focused on finding combinations that will work over the course of a long season and a long play-off run, then I would be able to shrug off some of these crappy losses. But to compound crappy play from our stars with crappy rotations doesn’t seem like its gonna solve our problems now, or later.
Don’t like what I’m reading about Prince being benched and taken out at points during the game. I didn’t catch it so I don’t know, but Curry mentioned him by name, saying he didn’t play well and the game was lost through the starters. This is a tough time for Detroit.
I’m disappointed in our team so far.
Toledo Joe pegged it. We’re too small, yet the roster really isn’t configured for smallball. Meanwhile the starters are in disarray, which exposes the age of guys like Sheed and Iverson. Nor is Curry doing a great job of helping them. But there’s time to get better, and if it doesn’t happen we’re in position to make moves for the future.
sign Marbury, start him at the point, bring AI off the bench to back up Rip
Bring Stuckey off the bench to back up Marbury
Marbury - Stuckey
Rip - AI
Tay - Goldilicks
Amir - Maxiell - Kwame
Sheed - ‘Dyess - Kwame
Talk about depth… since we’re going all in on this season, I’ll push my chips to the middle and sign Marbury if he wants to play in Detroit.
Do you know what this team needs? Horace Jenkins.
It’s really hard for me to feel for any of the players in this whole thing, because Curry was their guy. I eventually got tired of Flip too, but they rode Flip out on a rail, the whole time extolling the virtues of Curry. That people would be held accountable, that we’d be conditioned, that we’d emphasize defense to a greater degree.
There are signs that people are being held accountable (although it’s mystifying to send AI, the biggest defensive liability on our team, back out onto the floor, while letting Tayshaun sit), but Sheed’s legs are already turning to jello less than 20 games into the season, and usually the reserves are the only evidence of that allegedly renewed defensive mindset.
But Tayshaun, if you’re sour, you ASKED for this. All summer, the team was hyped over having a hard-as-nails, no-nonsense coach, and now that you have it, I better not hear any complaining. And if someone wants to bring up the fact that Curry doesn’t seem to grasp what sort of rotation to use, or that he seems like he isn’t some