Archive for May, 2008

Suns interview Terry Porter

Published by Matt Watson on May 16, 2008 in Rumors. 1 Comment

From Chris McCosky of the Detroit News:

Pistons lead assistant Terry Porter met with Phoenix Suns general manager Steve Kerr Thursday in Birmingham.

Porter, the former Milwaukee Bucks head coach, is the first candidate to formally interview for the Suns’ head coaching vacancy.

Porter and Kerr were teammates in San Antonio in the 1999-2000 season.

The fact that Porter and Kerr were teammates might lead some to think this was a courtesy interview, much like how Isiah Thomas “interviewed” Bill Laimbeer for the Knicks job in 2005. But considering Kerr had to jump through at least two hoops to make this happen (asking permission from the Pistons as well as flying out to Michigan), I think it’s safe to assume the Suns have genuine interest.

Bucks fans generally agree that Porter got a raw deal in Milwaukee, getting canned after just two years on the job despite advancing to the playoffs his first year. But that experience, as well as his last two years on the Pistons bench, can only help make him a better head coach the second time around.

Back in March, Henry Abbott asked Porter point-blank about his aspirations to be a head coach again and Porter artfully dodged a direct answer.

So, when are you going to be a head coach again?

Well, I don’t know. I’ve been very blessed, you know, Flip [Saunders] and Joe [Dumars] have given me an opportunity to be a part of this organization and this team, and it’s been great. Hopefully we can, you know, zero in on what we have to try to get done for this franchise first, and that’s to get back to the Finals and try to win a championship. That’s what this organization is all about. Joe has done a great job of putting together a roster and bringing Flip in and allowing me to come in and be a part of this staff. So I’m thankful for that, so right now, just zeroing in on just trying to get this team back The Finals.

Those other things as far as being a head coach, they will take care of themselves if we continue to play well and have success.

Some fans may be upset that the coaching staff isn’t 100% committed to preparing for the Eastern Conference Finals, but the timing of this interview doesn’t bother me one bit (and not just because the Pistons don’t even know who they’ll be facing yet). The coaching ladder should be a meritocracy, so assistants on winning teams should get the first crack at available jobs. It just seems wrong to penalize a guy’s career prospects because he happens to be good at his job, which is helping his team play deep into the playoffs.

(That said, I’m curious if/how this affects Michael Curry. The Bulls are said to have interest in him, but the prevailing thought is that Detroit may deny Chicago an interview. If the Bulls do seek permission and are turned down, the rumors of Curry being groomed as Flip Saunders’ heir apparent would appear to be true. Stay tuned.)

Chauncey Billups is (finally) ready to play

Published by Matt Watson on May 15, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Injuries. 8 Comments

Chauncey Billups will be on the court for the start of the Eastern Conference Finals, whenever that may be. From Joanne Gerstner of the Detroit News:

Billups, who has missed nearly three playoff games with a strained right hamstring, said Thursday he’s ready to play again.

Billups practiced almost up to capacity with the team.

“It’s just good to be out there,” Billups said. “My full-out sprint is not where I want it to be, but it’s not like I’m that fast anyways.”

If the Celtics win on the road in Cleveland (I know, I know, but it could happen) on Friday, the ECF could start on Sunday. If the Celtics and Cavs play seven games, the ECF won’t start until Tuesday.

Lindsey Hunter’s advice to Rip Hamilton

Published by Matt Watson on May 15, 2008 in From the news. 1 Comment

This is kind of funny. From Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press:

Hunter said after the game that Hamilton’s shot selection can anger him.

“Hopefully he’ll be settled down a little more (in the next round),” Hunter said. “I’m telling him, ‘You’re going to get 20 shots, so there’s no need for you to be out here acting like you’re not going to touch the ball again.’ So once he gets that in his spirit, then he can calm down and play the way he can play.”

You don’t climb your way to the top of the team’s all-time playoff scoring list by passing up shots, that’s for sure.

Dumars talks about the playoffs, Stuckey and Tay’s block

Published by Matt Watson on May 15, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Around the Internets. 32 Comments

As I’m sure many of you have already seen, Joe Dumars sat down with Keith Langlois for a rather lengthy Q&A for Pistons.com on Wednesday morning. Every time he does this I want to quote the entire article on DBB, but instead I’m just going to pick a handful of highlights and urge you to read the entire thing.

Langlois: At this point last season, you were going into the conference finals with an 8-2 playoff record. This year, pretty similar – you’re 8-3. Yet I get the sense that you feel better about where you’re sitting this year than you did a year ago. Is that so?

Dumars: No question. No question. I feel better about it. The difference in that record, the 8-2 and 8-3, the first game we lost in the playoffs, against Philly, was probably more beneficial to us than what happened last year. It got our attention. We had every guy’s attention the next day at practice. Guys knew. We cannot go back down this road, inconsistency and a lackadaisical approach. It made it easy to hammer home that point to guys from that point on. So I feel better – you’re absolutely right. I feel better about where we are right now heading into the conference finals than I felt last year.

Also worth mentioning: the Pistons entered the ECF last year having just lost two of three. Now, the Pistons have won six of their past seven. In other words, yeah, the Pistons have one more loss than a year ago, but they also have momentum.

Langlois: My next question was going to be was last night especially satisfying when you see Stuckey come in and not just hold down the fort, but to make plays in the fourth quarter and to have the ball in his hands for 30 minutes under pressure situations and not turn the ball over once, to take it at Dwight Howard the way he did.

Dumars: The answer to your question is yes. And that’s why you stand strong and do not waver in January and February when the kid might have some rough patches and you hear, “Well, maybe you should pull back.” No, no, no. No. Let him get through this, because there’s a bigger purpose. And the bigger purpose is a closeout game where he has to start. If you don’t stay with that kid through the season, through his ups and downs, if you panic, if you become impatient, if you go away from him, kill his confidence, he will never play like that in Game 5. That’s why, in the middle of January, you have to make those tough decisions and stay with him and assure everybody that this is going to work out. By the way, I’ve got to say this, too. You make that decision, I create a mandate that young guys are going to play, we still wound up with the second-best record in the league. We won 59 games – more than anybody in the West, more than everybody but one team in the entire NBA. It’s not like we suffered in the regular season for it. Sometimes that gets lost. How many more games do you think we’re supposed to win?

After reading that, my first thought was, “well, that’s nice, but why hasn’t the same strategy been used with other players (*cough* Amir *cough*)? But later in the interview, Dumars explained what sets Stuckey apart from most young players:

Dumars: In my eight years here, I’ve never seen a young player, a rookie, have the composure he has from the first day he got here. He didn’t just develop this composure over the course of the season. The first day he walked in here, he had that composure and air of confidence about him that lets you know he wasn’t in awe and he was never going to shrink when the moment came. It’s not like you saw it unfold over the season. Day one. He’s possessed that. I was telling my wife last night, he has that certain thing that lets you know when the big games come, he’ll be there. He’s going to be there. I don’t know how to describe it, or what “it” is, but he has that certain “it.” You never see him nervous. He may make a rookie mistake. But it’s not that he’s afraid or nervous, it’s that he’s unfamiliar with how to handle certain things. From day one, he’s had that.

Last but not least, Dumars thinks Tayshaun Prince’s block on Hedo Turkoglu was more impressive than his storied block on Reggie Miller:

Dumars: This was impressive. Miller never saw it coming. This was a mano-a-mano play. Hedo turned the corner and decided “I’m throwing it down. I’m not going to try to lay it up. I’m not going to try to float it.” And that’s a mano-a-mano thing you say to yourself on the court. And Tayshaun said, “I’ll meet you at the rim.” You have plays like that where both guys make up their mind that “I’m going to impose my will on you.” Hedo made up his mind and Tayshaun made up his mind. Those are the most impressive plays. Because there is no surprise element here. It’s one guy saying, “I’m coming.” And the other guy saying, “OK, I’ll be there.” And that’s impressive.

“I’ll meet you at the rim” — that’s classic.

McDyess’ sad story

Published by Matt Watson on May 15, 2008 in Alley-Oops. 1 Comment

This was mentioned briefly in the comments, but one of the reasons that Antonio McDyess’ performance on Tuesday was so remarkable was because it came just hours after he learned about the passing of his grandmother. Ryan Pretzer of Pistons.com tells the story.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference …

Published by Matt Watson on May 14, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Around the Internets. 3 Comments

I’m going to try something weird — I’m live-blogging the Celtics-Cavs game over at FanHouse, but I’m pretty sure I can also embed it here … let’s see if this works. Continue reading ‘Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference …’

Chauncey’s phantom assist

Published by Matt Watson on May 14, 2008 in Alley-Oops. 0 Comments

Chauncey Billups played the role of part-time assistant coach last night … and was rewarded with an assist.

Pistons are selling $24 tickets 5/15

Published by Matt Watson on May 14, 2008 in Alley-Oops. 0 Comments

Conference Finals tickets are already on sale at Ticketmaster, etc, but the Pistons will put 1,000 tickets priced at $24 for sale tomorrow. The catch? No internet and no phone orders. If you want a chance at them, you have to go to the Palace box office tomorrow morning to put your name in a lottery.

Pistons eliminate Magic in five

Published by Matt Watson on May 14, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, Magic and Shameless Plugging. 22 Comments

There’s been a lack of activity on my part over here today and last night (not that it’s stopped any of you), but that’s in part because I’ve been pretty active on FanHouse. Here are some highlights from last night:

  • Flip Saunders on Chauncey Billups taking his time returning:

    “It’s up to the players [to decide] when they’re right,” said Saunders. “And when they’re right, I don’t want them to have any hesitation, because if they’re not right and they have hesitation, they’re not going to play very good, to be honest. So, he’s got to feel comfortable as far as about it.”

  • Stan Van Gundy on Jameer Nelson’s “guarantee” as well as calling out the media for making lazy judgments:

    “What happens all the time is how well [we] play determines what you guys write about a team’s character and everything,” Van Gundy told the gaggle of reporters. “So automatically, if you play well, you have great character. And if you don’t play well, it’s because you don’t have the ‘resolve,’ and the ‘mental toughness’ and all of that. We have all of that. We have to play well.”

    This is an excellent point. I’ve grown increasingly sensitive to assigning character flaws to a team every time they lose. The Magic didn’t lose last night because they lacked character. In fact, the opposite is true: they held Detroit to 36% shooting, they out-rebounded them and they gave up only three three-pointers all night long.

    Unfortunately, they also turned the ball over 21 times (for 34 Pistons points) while Detroit set an NBA playoff record with three turnovers, including not one in the final three quarters. Orlando showed a ton of heart by staying in this game all night long, but in the end, the Pistons executed and they didn’t. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. The Pistons have been to six straight conference finals for a reason.

    The Pistons see this type of logic used against them all the time. When the Pistons lose, it’s not because they’re complacent, they simply don’t well every single night. When Rasheed Wallace has a bad shooting night, he’s not being lazy, he just couldn’t get into a groove. If you ever see me relying on cliche instead of reality, please call me out.

  • Jameer Nelson thinks the media made too much of his “guarantee:”

    After the game, slumped in a chair in front of his locker with his feet soaking in ice and wearing only a towel, a dejected Nelson reflected on his “guarantee” and the attention it attracted. “I didn’t guarantee a win,” he said. “I didn’t say, ‘we’re going to …’ I said ‘we have to go win, we’re going to come get this win.’ And the media took it out of proportion or whatever they want to do. The media always wants a story. I mean, I really don’t care what people write, you know?”

    I mean, he did say the Magic were going to win, but if you read my whole post, he explains himself.

  • I spoke to Rashard Lewis before the game about a handful of things, including how competitive this series actually was despite the fact that Orlando only won a single game:

    We won one game, but at the same time, the record doesn’t say how hard we’ve been playing, how tough we’ve been taking a team down to the wire. They’ve beat us three times, we’ve only beat them once, but I can guarantee you that every game they had to go out there and win the game, it wasn’t handed to them.

And last but certainly not least …

Rip Hamilton’s reaction after the game:

“I didn’t even see who blocked the shot, to tell you the truth. The only thing I’d seen was Tay flexing. I went up to Rasheed and I was like, ‘Uh, who blocked that shot? It must be Tay, huh?’

Pistons, Magic, elimination game

Published by Matt Watson on May 13, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, Magic and Previews. 433 Comments

Enough said. I’m at the game for FanHouse — leave your thoughts in the comments.

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