A Detroit Pistons blog
Photographer Jeffrey Simms attended the Pistons media day on Monday and took some outstanding pictures, which he added to the Detroit Bad Boys Flickr pool and graciously granted permission for me to post here. To see the rest of his pictures from Monday, check out his gallery SPMSportspage.com.
There are few basketball writers out there whose opinion I respect more ESPN’s John Hollinger. I don’t always agree with him, mind you, but while some people just throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks, Hollinger’s opinions are always informed and nuanced. That’s why of all the NBA previews out there, I’m highlighting his take on the Pistons in 2008-09:
If we’re going to use history as our teacher, then the default prediction for Detroit should be a win total in the mid-50s and a demoralizing loss in the conference finals. To stray from that projection after what has happened the past three seasons, we would need some very compelling evidence.
Certainly there are reasons to think Detroit might be better — even while nurturing a contending nucleus, Dumars has brought along a second wave of talent in the likes of Maxiell, Stuckey and Johnson that has eased the burden on his veteran starters. The youngsters also provide some insurance in case somebody on the Pistons ever gets injured — their track record of health the past half-decade has been completely ridiculous, but now they’re so deep that injuries would have to pile up en masse to materially affect them.
Standing against those positives are the facts that the Pistons who will play the crunch-time minutes are getting fairly long in the tooth — Hamilton is 30, Billups is 32, and Wallace and McDyess are 34 — and that first-year coach Curry may have to endure some growing pains this season.
Add it all up and we’re right back where we started. Yes, we must take Detroit seriously as a title contender. But much like last in the past three seasons, it appears that the Pistons are really, really good … and there’s one other Eastern team that’s better.
I’ll spoil the surprise: he has the Celtics coming out of the East to repeat. Either way, be sure to check out the rest of his analysis of Detroit, which is pretty much spot on.
The Pistons conducted media day on Monday and held their first official practice of training camp this morning, so there’s a slew of good articles out there. Before I dive in, though, I wanted to mention that I made a cameo at Empty the Bench today, answering a whole bunch of questions as part of their entertaining Scribes of the NBA interview series.
Wallace, who clashed with Saunders, says Curry has the respect of the players despite his lack of head coaching experience.
“It’s definitely a good change to me at the helm,” he said. “Everyone’s hungry, especially the younger guys. Just playing with them since the beginning of August up here in the practice facility, I’ve seen the hunger in a lot of the guys’ eyes and that’s always good to have.”
“No, he wasn’t (tough enough). In my opinion, he wasn’t. He let too many things slide. And that goes as far as myself, and what some of my teammates have done. With L.B. (Larry Brown), I think really, honestly, it was a respect level. Everyone respected Larry. Even though then, we had more of a veteran team, but everyone respected Larry, and everyone respects Mike now.”
Why does Curry get his automatic respect even though he’s a first-year coach? Because he played the game. He also added this:
“If you mess up a guy’s desk and throw coffee on it every day and he doesn’t do anything to stop you, are you going to respect him?”
That’s all well and good, but if you’re messing up a guy’s desk and throwing coffee on it every day, why should he respect you? I recommend listening to the whole thing - it’s pretty entertaining.
“That was the worst thing I ever went through,” said McDyess, who lives in Houston during the offseason. “And the crazy thing about it, the airport was open to 6 p.m. So me and my wife, we had a flight at 12 p.m. They closed the airport down at 10, so we had to go back home. I had never seen nothing like that in my life.”
During the 2004-05 season, McDyess’ first with the Pistons, he only started seven games, but put up 598 shots in less than 1,800 minutes. Last season, he started 78 games and logged just under 2,300 minutes. His shot total? Try 600 — just two shots more than his first season with the Pistons.
Jason Maxiell, a man of few words, was among those cracking on Rip’s long beard. “I have no idea what he’s doing,” Maxiell said. “Maybe it (hair) can grow up top now.”
“We’re just talking; there’s nothing going on there yet,” Maxiell said. “I am not going to focus on that now. Either way, I am coming back, so I just have to get ready for this training camp.”
If he can’t get a new deal by October 31, he’ll become a restricted free agent next summer.
One of the main purposes of media day, which just wrapped up at the Pistons’ practice facility, is allowing all the major media outlets – the area’s newspapers, TV and radio stations, the NBA and The Palace’s TV production department – to get pictures and video clips of the players in their uniforms.
While Jason Maxiell was wielding a sledgehammer for the Pistons’ TV and in-arena uses, the business end of it flew off, crashed to the basketball court and skidded a good 40 feet away. Not too many minutes before that, Chauncey Billups had just emerged from the locker room at right about the spot where Maxiell’s runaway sledgehammer crash landed.
“It really enhances everything,” he said. “You’ve got another guy out on the court who can make plays, get to the paint and distribute and do the things that for the last five, six years, I’ve been pretty much the only one out there who can get into the paint and create for everybody else. There are going to be times when we both are going to be out there and it causes havoc trying to play against two guys like that for the other team.”
For those living in and around Ann Arbor, Joe Dumars will be speaking at U-M’s Ross School of Business on Friday afternoon. (Thanks to DBB reader Ron for the tip)
PistonsNation has an interesting interview with Will Bynum:
[PN] After a pretty good college career with George Tech you kinda bounced around a little bit, how good did it feel to sign that guaranteed contract with the Pistons?
–-(Will signed a two-year deal, The first year is guaranteed, and the second year is a team option)[WB] I really don’t consider it “bouncing around” at all. I was on high level teams where I learned a lot which gave me the opportunity to mature as a person as well as a player. The paths of my career is one that I think can be an inspiration to a lot of young people who have to go different routes to achieve their goals in life. Never be discouraged and never give up.
As far as signing that guaranteed contract….it feels really good to know that all my hard work has paid off.
Bynum reminds me a little of Mike James. He’s a couple of inches shorter but is quite strong, and at least from what I saw in summer league, plays defense with a great deal of intensity. I’m guessing he won’t see regular minutes in the rotation, but I’m curious to see if he can reprise Lindsey Hunter’s old role as a spot defender, someone who comes into the game looking to get into the ballhandler’s face and disrupt the passing lanes.
In any case, kudos to PN for scoring the interview.
After adding him to the training roster, the Pistons officially signed Alex Acker. Chris McCosky has details on his blog:
You wonder where or if he’s going to play, but the Pistons have signed guard Alex Acker. They gave him a partially-guaranteed one-year deal that would pay him close to $700,000 if he sticks the whole season, and they have an option for him for next season.
Obviously nothing is guaranteed until the start of the season, but the addition of Acker means the Pistons have a full roster of 15.
Update: Actually, strike that, it’s apparently fully guaranteed. From A. Sherrod Blakely:
Alex Acker won’t have to earn a roster spot after all. The 6-foot-5 combo guard signed a one-year, fully guaranteed contract with the Pistons. By signing Acker, drafted by the Pistons with the final pick (No. 60) of the 2005 NBA draft, the Pistons now have the NBA-maximum 15 players with guaranteed.
From A. Sherrod Blakely:
Former Pistons coach Flip Saunders, who was fired by Detroit over the summer, will spend time at the Washington Wizards training camp. Every year, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan invites a coach or coaches to training camp.
In addition to Saunders, Jordan also invited Hall of Fame coach K.C. Jones to speak to his players.
Washington all-star forward Caron Butler spent time talking to Saunders about defense — specifically, how Saunders approached defending him and “what were some of the things you (Saunders) focused on,” Butler told reporters. “And he (Saunders) said, ‘We just hoped that you had a bad night.’ ”
Last season, Butler averaged 20.3 points per game. But against the Pistons, he averaged 15 points per game.
I was surprised by Butler’s average against the Pistons last year because I remember him having some huge games against the Pistons in the past. In his three years in Washington, he’s faced Flip and the Pistons 10 times. He averaged 27.5 points per game in the first five but just 13.2 in the last five. I’m guessing there’s more to the story than simply hoping for the best. Still, it makes for an amusing anecdote.
I like John Salley as much as the next guy (and a lot more than some, for sure), but how in the world did his talk his way into that commercial? A Cy Young award winner, the greatest running back to play the game … and Spider? (Kudos to DBB reader Sauce for re-discovering this.)
I’m headed up north for the weekend, and while a guest post may or may not bump this down in the next day or so, feel free to use the comments here as your hub for weekend silliness, political debate flaming and/or football-inspired arguments. Be nice, and a have a good one.
Patrick Hayes of the Flint Journal recently interviewed (my favorite Pistons blogger) Natalie from Need4Sheed.
A. Sherrod Blakley touches upon Amir Johnson’s chances to be a starter this year, and he brings up a common criticism of Johnson’s game:
While appearing in a career-high 62 games last season, Johnson averaged 8.9 fouls per 48 minutes played. Only Atlanta rookie Mario West (10.9) averaged more fouls per 48 minutes among NBA players who appeared in as many games as Johnson.
“A lot of it is game experience,” Curry said when asked about Johnson’s persistent foul trouble. “Amir came straight from high school. He didn’t get a lot of time the first couple years. The only (playing time) he got was in the Developmental League. He really doesn’t have a lot of game experience.”
I agree with Michael Curry, but I’ll add that I think it’s more than just inexperience — I think a big factor has been Johnson knowing that no matter how well (or poorly) he played, he probably wasn’t going to play long enough to foul out. (I know, I know; I’ve made variations of this argument several times in the past, but it’s worth repeating now that Johnson has emerged as the pre-camp favorite to start …)
Yes, Johnson averaged 8.9 fouls per 48 minutes, but in 70 games (62 in the regular season, eight in the playoffs), but do you know how many games he actually finished with more than four fouls? Seven. Do you know how many he finished with no more than two fouls? 44.
Johnson (like everybody else in the arena) knew his playing time was going to be limited, so when he did get in the game he admitted to being extremely eager trying to make something happen on defense. He’s a prolific shot-blocker, so it’s natural to think a lot of his fouls came from being too aggressive going for the block. As I saw it, though, that wasn’t the case; he seemed to get in the most trouble with silly reach-in fouls on the perimeter. That’s something he can avoid with regular playing time as he calms down a bit and gets into a rhythm instead of trying to impress the coaches with every step on the floor.
But don’t take my word for it, consider the career of another big man who made the jump directly from high school. In 1998-99, Jermaine O’Neal’s third year in the NBA, he averaged 6.3 fouls per 48 and 8.9 minutes per game for the Trail Blazers. The following season, O’Neal averaged 7.1 fouls per 48 and 12.3 minutes per game. Finally, in 2000-01, O’Neal’s fifth year, after being traded to Pacers and finally given a chance at real minutes, he averaged 5.1 fouls per 48 and 32.6 minutes per game.
Was O’Neal’s fouls the reason he didn’t play in Portland? Of course not; ironically enough, it was because he was behind Rasheed Wallace. But once he got the opportunity, talent took over. I see no reason for hand-wringing that Johnson’s tendency to foul won’t solve itself once he gets a real honest-to-goodness chance to play on a regular basis, whether that’s starting or coming off the bench.
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