Chris McCosky of the Detroit News has a great article about Antonio McDyess, who explained why he decided to come back to Detroit:
“What kept my loyalty to the Pistons was Joe,” McDyess said, referring to Pistons president Joe Dumars. “Four or five years ago (2004), I was at the bottom of my career. There were pretty much just two teams that wanted me and these guys were coming off a championship. But they wanted me even though I had a bum knee and hadn’t played in a year or two.
“Joe took that chance on me and gave me another chance at basketball and allowed me to start my career all the way back over, from the bottom to the top again. I just wanted to repay him for that.”
Certainly McDyess looked at the standings before re-signing with the Pistons last Tuesday. He saw Boston and Cleveland looking more like championship-worthy than the Pistons now.
“I don’t want to be jumping from team to team chasing that ring,” he said. “The ring is not guaranteed. Even if I went to the best team in the league, Boston, the Lakers, whoever, I just feel like anything can happen in the playoffs. I know that, and I know this team. Anything can happen.”
When you think about this, it’s a little crazy. Not to generalize, but the common perception of professional athletes is that they feel entitled, but this is the exact opposite. No rationale person in the world would have held it against McDyess if he felt at least slightly betrayed after being traded, but despite it all, he was still grateful for getting a second chance five summers ago.
If you’re a fan of McDyess, you’ll definitely want to read the entire article, which includes an amusing (and yet kind of sad) story about why he re-signed with the Nuggets in 1999.
His number should be retired based on character alone.
something i have been wondering is why mcdyess did not feel taken for granted by dumars and why he didn’t give denver a try. it sure seems in hindsight that denver would have been a better place to be. chauncey has really improved them at a moment when only the lakers look better. imagine denver with mcdyess too. and the trade and move was completely out of his hands … no ring chasing there. i almost wish he had because i have a feeling i will be rooting for denver a little longer than detroit this year.
All i gotta say is …..
ICE FOR DYESS!
I’m a fan of McDyess from China, the country where Yao came from.
Pistons id my favorate, and McDyess’s loyalty moved me
That guy is a class act. Always liked Dice.. now I do even more.
You can’t say enough good things about Dyess. I hope that he will stay involved with the Pistons in some way when he retires.
I’d like to see him coach high school kids. What a great role model.
What does that say about the sort of person who would peg him with a basketball?
Man, I hope that the Pistons win a championship if only so Dyess can get his ring. No one deserves it more. Stay classy Dyess.
Dyess is awesome. He would definitely be an awesome high school (or public school) coach. And his wedding photos were fantastic!
OT: Anyone know about this: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Asa_WiNl4b50HuhdWPQ40i68vLYF?slug=ap-pistons-iversonfined&prov=ap&type=lgns
Y’know, I’m coming at the Pistons from a different angle than many of you. I was traded here with Iverson, and my main interest in the Pistons will wane when Iverson leaves.
So, I’m all about winning now.
I don’t care about the development of Stuck and Amir. I don’t care about what you do with your cap space in 2010.
But Pistons fans do (and should) have different concerns than me. Dumars keeps talking about this as a transition year, and from a Detroit perspective, that makes sense. You don’t want to sacrifice the future for this year.
But the thing is that you owe it to Dyess to try to win a title this this. Win one for the Dyess-er.
And yes we can.
Afflalo needs to get more minutes with the first unit. The AI/Rip/Stuckey roles need to get better defined. Curry needs to let AI be AI. We may need to pick up a vet searching for a ring in March. But there is enough on the roster to win a title this year without sacrificing the future.
@ Petey
Allright, so you’re here cuz I’verson’s here, glad to have you and all that. How do you feel about him coming off the bench with the green light to score and lead the second unit? Is that something that AI would be willing to do?
More specifically: 30 mins/night with Afflalo, Max, Dyess, Tay/Hermann on the floor with him?
“How do you feel about him coming off the bench with the green light to score and lead the second unit? Is that something that AI would be willing to do?”
I honestly don’t care if Iverson starts or plays the Manu role off the bench. Who starts and who doesn’t matters more to the press and fans than to the flow of the game. Rotations for the entire 48 minutes matter, not who’s on the floor for the first five minutes.
All I care about is having Afflalo play serious minutes in the backcourt with Iverson, not hiding Iverson on the weak side of the offense away from the ball for long stretches, and having Iverson on the floor down the stretch.
And I’m a big advocate of limiting Iverson’s minutes. I think playing him heavy minutes reduces his effectiveness, and would think that even if needing to make good use of Rip didn’t make limiting Iverson’s minutes a team imperative.
And in terms of ‘green light to score’, that’s not quite what it’s about. It’s a ‘green light to dribble’ that is important. Iverson’s handle is what makes him a special player. When he moves with the ball, he causes the opposition’s defense to massively break down, and it doesn’t matter whether that results in an Iverson shot attempt, or the ball in the hands of another Piston with the opposition defense struggling to recover.
In the same way that moving without the ball is what makes Rip good, it’s moving WITH the ball that makes Iverson special.
At some point, Curry/Dumars need to realize that the Pistons are going to NEED Afflalo’s defense in the playoffs, and that playing Afflalo with Iverson will generate wide open shots for Afflalo that will make him effective on the offensive end as well.
“Allright, so you’re here cuz I’verson’s here, glad to have you and all that.”
FWIW, given that the Iverson Sixers broke down and weren’t a title contender for years, I had plenty of time to root for other teams in playoffs after the Sixers were gone. And I usually found myself rooting for the Pistons. I’ve long been a fan especially of Sheed, Ben, and Tay. I think I was the only person outside of Detroit who actually thought the Pistons were going to take down the Lakers in ‘04 ahead of time…
First, I will add my appreciation of Dyess’s character.
Second, Petey, re AI, the question isn’t whether you would be OK with AI coming off the bench, but rather do you — as a long-time AI fan — think AI would be OK coming off the bench? In other words, I think most folks here agree with you that it would be better for Detroit overall if they played less small ball and instead had two units: Stuckey-Rip-Tayshaun-Sheed-Other Legit Big starting; and AI, Afflalo, and McDyess anchoring a second unit (with appearances by others).
The question is whether AI would be good with that. Your thoughts?
Oh, and I also agree with you that, even though it’s early this roster, even if it gels better, doesn’t look like it can get past Boston.
If Dyess ever becomes a second grade teacher, I’m having kids and moving them to that district.
“Second, Petey, re AI, the question isn’t whether you would be OK with AI coming off the bench, but rather do you — as a long-time AI fan — think AI would be OK coming off the bench?”
It’s a good question that I avoided above because I don’t know the answer. Likewise, I don’t know if Rip would be OK with coming off the bench with Stuckey if Iverson and Afflalo start. It’ll obviously be a league-wide press frenzy should either Rip or AI come off the bench. If Curry is craftier than we all think, he could use that kind of frenzy to help the team.
But again, I don’t think it really matters that much who starts. Starting mostly matters for the press and fans. If Curry keeps everybody happy by starting AI and Rip, and then reverts to alternating Rip/Stuckey and AI/Afflalo backcourts during the game, with periods of smallball three guard lineups, I’d be ecstatic.
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“Oh, and I also agree with you that, even though it’s early this roster, even if it gels better, doesn’t look like it can get past Boston.”
See, I disagree here. I think there is a genuine shot at a title this year if Curry can get his rotations and roles set.
Boston is a load, as is Cleveland to a slightly lesser degree. But if we do gel, I think we can give ANYONE a real series. And if you are ready in May and June to give elite teams a real series, you put yourself in a position to actually win a title.
Duncan and Popovich aren’t wearing four rings because they dominated in December. They’re wearing four rings because they were ready to compete every spring, and they took advantage of the openings that presented themselves.
Dumars owes to it Dyess to be ready this spring.
Don’t underestimate Iverson’s hunger to win a title. Ride that, instead. We’ve got a roster that should be able to compete with the elite if rotations and roles are correctly set.
I honestly think this roster can make some serious damage in the playoffs, if MC gets his head in the right place and makes it work.
@Petey:
re: Iverson + Afflalo.
You’ve mentioned on a few threads how badly you want to see Iverson get minutes alongside Afflalo. You’ve cited the 82games floor unit stats as reasoning, but I’m wondering if it goes beyond that. Those stats only combine for 49 minutes of playing time all season. That might be too small of a sample to justify changing the lineups accordingly.
In a greater sample, the three guard combination is working– in the last three games, it is working quite well. Hamilton and Iverson are gelling, Stuckey is playing like a future all-star, Rasheed is anchoring our defensive line.
Of all of our lineups, our starting line of stuck/iverson/hamilton/prince/wallace has been the most effective, yet with a weakness in rebounds, blocks, 2nd chance opportunities, etc. I’ve suggested this earlier, but if the Pistons should make any lineup change it should be to move Prince to the 6th spot and Maxiell or Amir to the starting 4. We can continue to run as we have, but we have greater defensive opportunities, more height, stronger rebounding, blocking etc.
This would give us a second unit of Bynum/Afflalo/Prince/McDyess and amir/max/brown, whoever doesn’t start. I’d take that lineup against most starting lines in the NBA.
Part of the problem with Iverson and Afflalo on the floor at the same time– who is going to run the offense? If we bring in Bynum, that pushes Afflalo out of position to the 3 (where he is more than capable, but this would leave both our starting lineup and our 2nd unit undersized). Can Iverson lead the offense of our second unit?
I’m absolutely in favor of getting Iverson minutes next to Afflalo where possible, but if we’re going to make any changes to our rotations, I think the Iverflalo duo is a lower priority.
Also, it could be argued that moving a guy like Amir to the starting PF would take away an offensive option from the core– but in the last 120 minutes of play, Prince hasn’t been an offensive option either. In spite, this lineup is still +44.
Putting Bynum, Afflalo, and Tayshaun on the floor together would make for some pretty impressive on-ball defense.
According to Curry, Stuckey is our best on ball defender.
I’d like to see the current starting line-up get some more time together, but it may make some sense to insert Amir for Tay eventually if we continue to struggle with rebounds, blocks, and second chance opportunities while not being as efficient offensively. A good thing about having the smaller line-up is we can switch much more often, so we don’t get killed on pick and rolls as much.
I know Tay has struggled a bit offensively, but I wonder how valuable his presence on the floor is for spacing and giving more room for AI/Stuckey/Rip who have just killed it in the last 3 games? I’m interested in seeing us play some bigger front lines…I would think Tay would have more opportunities to take bigger 4’s off the dribble and run around screens.
“You’ve mentioned on a few threads how badly you want to see Iverson get minutes alongside Afflalo. You’ve cited the 82games floor unit stats as reasoning, but I’m wondering if it goes beyond that. Those stats only combine for 49 minutes of playing time all season. That might be too small of a sample to justify changing the lineups accordingly.”
Agreed it’s a very small sample. Too small a sample to prove anything.
But here’s the thing:
I didn’t go to 82games, see the 5 man units, and then decide that Iverson/Afflalo must be effective.
Instead, I saw what Afflalo does on the court, and given what I already knew about Iverson’s game, I realized that a backcourt of Iverson and Afflalo would be incredibly effective. The limited sample at 82games just confirmed what I already had guessed.
The holy grail of an Iverson backcourt mate has ALWAYS been a lockdown defender with size who can knock down the wide open three. And if you tried to create such a holy grail in a laboratory, you’d end up with something very close to Arron Afflalo.
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“Part of the problem with Iverson and Afflalo on the floor at the same time– who is going to run the offense?”
Iverson runs point, with Tay as secondary point. No third guard is necessary.
In other words, once the ball is in the halfcourt, it goes to Iverson. Iverson dribbles into the defense and draws multiple defenders. If he has a good shot or lane to the rim, he takes it. If the multiple defenders leave another Piston open, Iverson finds them. If Iverson gets stuck, he kicks the ball out to Tayshaun as secondary point, who will then make a decision about where the ball goes.
This will require a large energy expenditure from Iverson, which is one reason why limiting his minutes is crucial. If he runs point for 24 mpg, he can then play off guard for another 8-10mpg (in three guard alignments), and sit on the bench for the other 14-16mpg.
Iverson ran point for about 50% of Denver’s possessions last year, and Denver outscored their opponents by a much larger margin while Iverson was running point than when he was playing off the ball. (You can do some forensic accounting on the Denver stats to show this, and I was watching the games.)
The whole premise of Larry Brown’s decision a decade ago to move Iverson off the ball was to conserve his energy since he was the only scorer on the team. With the Rip/Stuckey backcourt, Iverson doesn’t have to play heavy minutes, so put him back on the ball. He’s FAR more effective on the ball than off the ball.
—–
Folks have to look forward. If we’re going anywhere in the East, we need to get past Boston and/or Cleveland. And that means putting someone on Pierce and LeBron. I love Rip’s and Tayshaun’s defense, and they’ll have minutes guarding those guys, but Afflalo as a defender will make Pierce and LeBron work SIGNIFICANTLY harder for their shots, which is what you need to do to those guys in a seven game series.
I like Iverson/Afflalo for two big reasons:
- Afflalo is an offensive spacer who will give Iverson room to work, and who will knock down the many wide open shots Iverson creates for him at a high percentage.
- Afflalo NEEDS to be on the court for defensive reasons, and pairing him with Iverson will make effective enough on the offensive end to justify his minutes.
But all of this requires Curry understanding that Iverson needs to run the point for a certain number of minutes per game. And that’s something that doesn’t seem to be in the current Detroit high command mindset.
Play Iverson 100% off the ball, as Curry is currently doing, and he’s going to be an average NBA player at very best…
“Play Iverson 100% off the ball, as Curry is currently doing, and he’s going to be an average NBA player at very best…”
And if Iverson is an average NBA player at very best, the Palace will certainly be dark in June, and will probably be dark in mid-May.
If Dumars is interested in actually winning a title this year, certain gambles are going to have to be made.
@Petey,
Side note, wanted to say I enjoy the conversation- its nice to have an Iverson specialist bring some history to the table here. I know my Pistons, but granted I know little of Iverson aside from our meetings in the playoffs when he was in Philly.
re: Boston, Cleveland:
While there is only one game’s worth of data, our best game against Cleveland was with Rip guarding Lebron, not Tayshaun. That said, it could be possible to maintain a three guard lineup against Cleveland. Against Boston, I’d be worried to see Rip on Pierce. Problem being, if Afflalo is on Pierce, who do we have on Rondo and Ray Allen? No matter who you match Iverson with, its likely not going to be pretty…
Allright, Petey, I like your argument. AI for Point! Spellcheck for SG!
Oh, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen this site, but Busted Coverage is running a Blog of the Year tournament and DBB and Need4Sheed are both entered.
Matt’s apparantly not favored to win, but let’s help out anyway, huh?
http://www.bustedcoverage.com/?p=9550
*Apparently
DBB as a #14 seed? We all need to vote and make this “upset” happen.
Spellcheck strikes again! MLive.com can’t figure out how to spell his name. And the interview is well worth listening to. Afflalo gets precisely why his TS% has gone through the roof.
—–
“I know little of Iverson aside from our meetings in the playoffs when he was in Philly.”
This was the game that broke my heart. We needed to steal one of the first two in Detroit, and we had it done! Up two with 15 seconds left, Iverson at the line to shoot two, the game in hand, and Bubbachuck somehow pooched both FT’s. Then Tayshaun killed us softly with his little hooks in the lane…
Mike Payne:
If Curry sticks with three guards, I will hope it works. But seeing some good performances from that lineup in three games against godawful teams isn’t enough to sell me.
One of my problems with three-guards is not only does it put Rip out of position, but it puts Tayshaun out of position too, because Tay is a 3, not a 4. Of course we’re going to start Tayshaun, so we start a team in which two players are undersized and playing positions they aren’t used to playing. It took the Wizards a quarter to figure that out last time. And the fact that we then went on to squeak by a couple of the NBA’s worst teams with smallball — well, let’s say I don’t think that’s a good sample either.
Oh, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen this site, but Busted Coverage is running a Blog of the Year tournament and DBB and Need4Sheed are both entered.
Matt’s apparantly not favored to win, but let’s help out anyway, huh?
http://www.bustedcoverage.com/?p=9550
Small warning, the link’s not particularly NSFW, but you probably don’t want it open if your boss is behind you. Scantily clad women and whatnot.
I went to high school with this guy and he has always been a class act!
I would have come to the NBA with Dyess but my lack of athletic abilty and 5′ 10″ stature held me back. Stay cool Dyess…..Clarke County is so very proud of you!