Carlos Delfino is still frustrating Pistons fans. He (along with the rest of Team Argentina) faces Tayshaun Prince (and the rest of Team USA) in the Olympic semi-finals tomorrow (10:30 a.m. EST). I’ll be liveblogging for FanHouse — look for a link in the morning.
Archive for August, 2008
From Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
According to a source familiar with the situation, the 6-foot-10 Ratliff has accepted a one-year contract for the veterans’ minimum of $1.4 million.
At Monday’s press conference to announce the signing of Andre Iguodala, Sixers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski said he hoped to have a big man in place “within 48 hours,” but would not elaborate further.
Ratliff, 35, had offers for more money, but the source said he would prefer playing for the Sixers.
Did he really have other offers? Or is this source simply trying to repair Ratliff’s wounded rep? Either way, I’m happy to see Ratliff found a new home. He proved last year he still had something left in the tank and should be a good mentor for Marreese Speights.
This is hilarious — from Ryan Pretzer at Pistons.com:
Clifford Wade and Latanya Bussell had an agreement about the naming of their first child. If Latanya had a boy, Clifford would name him; a girl, and Latanya would have the honor.
Clifford, a lifelong Detroiter who says he comes to five Pistons games a season on average, knew precisely which name he wanted to go with. And it definitely wasn’t Dwyane.
“Rasheed is my favorite [Piston] and I also wanted as the middle name somebody off the bench so I chose Amir Johnson,” said Clifford, who named his son Rasheed Amir Wade.
And you thought some DBB readers took the Free Amir movement too seriously …
From Bill Ingram of HOOPSWORLD:
Rumors have Theo Ratliff on the verge of signing with the Philadelphia 76ers to replace injured center Jason Smith, and if there’s a big man in the league who has more to prove than Kwame Brown it’s Ratliff.
There was a time when Ratliff was thought to be the next great dominant big man in the NBA, but injuries - both real and imagined - have prevented him from ever really finding out how good he might be. He’s always been able to find a team willing to gamble that he would realize his potential with them, which is why he’s had a 12-year run in the NBA, but his inability to get healthy has been his defining characteristic. More than a few coaches and scouts have intimated off the record that Ratliff is more interested in collecting his check from the sidelines than putting his skills on display, and we haven’t seen anything to dispute that claim.
I don’t really know what to say. It was obvious that Ratliff has struggled to stay healthy, but this is the first time I heard someone suggest he had a reputation for dogging it. For what it’s worth, Ratliff left money on the table when he was bought out by the Timberwolves to join the Pistons last season. Maybe not a lot, but it’s still worth acknowledging in the face of allegations that his primary concern is always his paycheck.
(Of course, if Ratliff did have that rep early in his career, I guess Michael Curry would know about it — there were teammates Ratliff’s first two years in the league.)
I know there was some talk at the end of the year that Ratliff might return, but I think it’s safe to assume that the door closed for him the moment Kwame Brown signed. As things currently stand, the Pistons have five bigs vying for time in the rotation (and that’s not including Cheikh Samb).
Looking at the roster as a whole, the Pistons have 14 men under contract:
Guards (5)
Chauncey Billups
Rip Hamilton
Rodney Stuckey
Arron Afflalo
Will Bynum
Small Forwards (3)
Tayshaun Prince
Walter Herrmann
Walter Sharpe
Bigs (6)
Rasheed Wallace
Antonio McDyess
Jason Maxiell
Amir Johnson
Kwame Brown
Cheikh Samb
Who’s going to be No. 15? As of earlier this week, the Pistons were still waiting on Lindsey Hunter to decide if he wanted to postpone retirement one more year. Exciting, I know. My preference is to hold that spot open for a D-League flavor of the month to keep a steady flow of hard-working new faces coming through the locker room, but the bench is young enough that I don’t actually mind the presence of one aging veteran.
I rarely pay attention to preseason rankings, but seeing as it’s the middle of August without much happening in Pistonsville, I’m going to make an exception. So, Marty Burns of Sports Illustrated, what say you about the East?
1. Boston
2. Cleveland
3. Magic
Bold! You bumped Detroit out of your top 3! Boston obviously belongs there and Cleveland did get better by getting Mo Williams. I’m not entirely sure what Orlando did to make the jump, but sure, it’s your list, I’ll play along …
4. Philadelphia
Okay, I see what you did there. You must be an Elton Brand fan, but, um, aren’t you forgetting someone?
5. Washington
Yeah, that’s not who I was talking about …
6. Detroit
Seriously? Sixth? Explain yourself, man!
Logic says they should be ranked higher, since they suffered no significant losses (other than coach Flip Saunders) from a team that won 59 games last season. But even president Joe Dumars seemed to think this present group had run its course at the end of last season and needed some new blood. Kwame Brown isn’t likely to light a fire under anybody. And how will all those Pistons vets react to hearing their names in trade talks all summer? Unless Dumars has something else up his sleeve, the Pistons just seem like a team headed for a decline.
Dumars thinks some “new blood” might help the team make the jump from losing a contested Conference Finals to hoisting the Larry O’Brien — it’s not like he’s worried this team will suddenly turn in a .500 record. The Raptors finished sixth in the East last year by going 41-41 — do you really think a few veterans hearing their names mentioned in trade rumors will cost this team 18 games?
That’s crazy talk. All of a sudden, I just remembered why I avoid these things. Let me save you five minutes: 7. Raptors; 8. Pacers; 9. Hawks; 10. Bobcats; 11. Heat; 12. Bucks; 13. Bulls; 14. Nets; 15. Knicks.
Positions are extremely arbitrary in the NBA. LeBron James is as big as Karl Malone but makes plays like Isiah Thomas … and yet he’s a “small forward?” David Sparks takes arbitrary out of the equation by assigning descriptive labels strictly according to stats — and then displays the results in an amazing chart too incredible for me to describe.
Forget Russia, former Piston Flip Murray is going to Atlanta.
Speaking of Antonio McDyess and weddings … here’s Dyess and Rip Hamilton at Mo Evans’ wedding earlier this summer. Seriously, if the only thing Rip Hamilton accomplished this summer was growing that impressive beard, it’s been a successful offseason. (via Need4Sheed)
We knew it was going to happen two weeks ago, but the Pistons finally made the formal announcement: Walter Herrmann has re-signed.
Longtime readers of this site know that every now and then the comments section will break into spontaneous haiku. It hasn’t happened in a while, but if the poetry bug is starting to bite, head over to Pistonscast for their haiku contest.
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