By now you’ve probably heard the news — Mike Payne was the first to bring it to DBB — but Bill Laimbeer officially announced his resignation from the Detroit Shock in hopes of landing an NBA gig. Rick Mahorn, an assistant the last five years, will take over as head coach.
Perhaps you’ve seen the rumor that he’s interested in the T’Wolves job (hat-tip: Need4Sheed) — that could very well be true, but from the sounds of it, he’s interested in anything, whether it’s a head coaching gig or an assistant.
Check out FanHouse for my structured take on the situation — or keep reading below for a full transcript of Laimbeer’s comments from today’s press conference.
DETROIT SHOCK HEAD COACH BILL LAIMBEER: “A long time ago, which was six-and-a-half years ago, Tom (Wilson) and I sat down and talked about the Detroit Shock and making a coaching change and if I would be interested in it. We spent a lot of time debating the plusses and minuses and I said I would do it. Everybody asks me if I thought I would have been here this long and I say ‘no, I didn’t’ but I wouldn’t take any of it back. It’s been a great experience. I’ve had a lot of fun. I want to thank Tom and Mr. Davidson and all their support staff from Palace Sports and Entertainment for being by my side, and the Detroit Shock’s side. All the way back to Kristen Bernert who came in with me - two new people trying to make a go of this thing.
I’ve also had the best staff that anybody could ask for in Cheryl Reeve, Rick Mahorn and Laura Ramus. It’s been a lot of fun. I have the best players, both on and off the court; we have a lot of fun, which is what sports is all about. If you don’t have fun you shouldn’t be in it. The fans have been very supportive – not just of the Shock but also of myself. That’s been a real good feel good thing myself.
I’ve learned a lot being a coach. A whole lot. Not only about myself but also about the profession. I’ve learned that I can survive in a high-intensity environment with very strong-willed people and to work with them to get the job done. I pat myself on the back a little bit for that. Going in you never know and its worked out pretty good and I’ve enjoyed it. People ask if I’m sick. No, I’m not sick.
Did I get another job? No, I didn’t get another job. It’s just that time for me to go and do something different. I am going to pursue, somewhere down the road, an opportunity if it comes to me in the NBA. That’s my goal. That’s my passion. Hopefully sometime I’ll be able to get an opportunity. The best way to describe how I feel is when I talk to the media, whether it be ESPN or any other radio shows when I travel with the Shock, the question always comes to me at least once a week. Do you see yourself in the NBA? My answer has always been diplomatic. I’m having fun doing what I’m doing now but if it comes one day, great. The best way to say it now is yeah; I do want to go to the NBA. Assistant coach, head coach – that’s my passion, that’s my goal. When someone asks me the question I want to say yes. If the answer is yes how can I focus on being the head coach of the Detroit Shock when all my concentration and focus is elsewhere? I’ll be doing them a disservice; I’ll be doing myself a disservice and the organization. That’s not who I am. It never has been who I am. I’m always 100% all-in with two feet, emotionally and physically and if I’m not able to do that then I’m not going to just get a paycheck. I’m going to go home.
It was a good conversation I had with them a few moments ago. People will ask why now? I will tell them that I made a mistake starting the season. There’s a lot of changes going on in the men’s league and a lot of changes going on in our organization with Mr. Davidson and Chuck (Daly) being gone now. I thought I could do it and I realized after I started no. I feel bad about that. If I get hit by a truck – that’s our code word for going away. If I get hit by a truck - every decision has been made over the last six months concerning our basketball team has been openly talked about. At some point I thought it was going to be their show. This is not a surprise to them. They’re very capable moving forward and I wish them all the best.”
(On the viability of the league) “This league is strong. The players are bigger, faster, stronger than ever before. This has nothing to do with the economic times at all. This has everything to do with me as a person looking at what my passion now is and where it’s headed. I believe that there is no way this league is going away. It’s too entrenched and the players are too good. They work diligently all the time to maintain the viability of the league both on and off the court. The owners are committed. The league is committed. Every sport is under duress right now with the economic times. I’ve said before it will survive and it will be stronger.”
(On talking the Joe Dumars or the ownership about moving to the Pistons) “I haven’t talked to the ownership. As far as talking to Joe Dumars yeah I’ve talked to Joe Dumars but it’s more about opportunities elsewhere in the league. Whether it was feeling out what he thought I may have to do to get an opportunity someplace. Also is it my time? We’ve chatted a little bit about that too. He has staff in place and I’m looking for opportunities elsewhere.”
(On if he has interviewed for a position) “I haven’t interviewed with anybody. I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m in a situation if I’m doing what I’m doing I’m not committing myself to pursuing an NBA job. I’m not doing both. It’s unfair. I’ve went ahead to divest myself of one to pursue another. So now I’m divesting of the WNBA I’m going full speed on looking for opportunities in the NBA. I did that with Isiah many years ago and it was a tremendous distraction to our basketball team. I would never do that again. I have not to answer your question.”
(On being prepared for the grind of the NBA) “I made it clear that this is a full-time job. The WNBA is a shorter season. There’s not as much of an off-season demand as in the men’s side even. It’s a traveling, grueling, pressured nightmare. Nightmare is the wrong way to say it. It’s a very intense environment. I’m not tired of coaching; I’m not burned out. It’s the opposite. I’m prepared to move on with what I’ve learned of how I do and work with our players to see if I can be successful at a different level. That’s what this is all about. It’s my time to see who I am and what I can do; can I be successful doing it?
“Thank you all for your support.”
Mike Payne’s Combat Basketblog.
The important thing to do when a good candidate becomes available is to remain clam and not go nuts for him. Can’t… Hold… Back…
FIRE CURRY! GET lAIMBEER JOE D! GET HIM!!! GEEEEEEET HIIIIIIIM!!11!
Co-sign, SadPanda!
yes yes agree w sadpanda,, fire curry get laimbeer geeeeeeeeeeeet hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim cmon joe..
Does Lamb’s in-your-face style work for a first year coach?
Well, Curry’s inability to challenge personnel or management didn’t, that’s for sure. Give Lamb some young big men and he’ll put that chip on their shoulder.
I don’t think he’s going to end up coaching the Stones anytime soon (why trade one NBA-inexperienced coach for another, after all), but it’s a fun idea.
I’d rather have Rodman as a coach than Laimbeer.
at lease laimbeer knows how success taste as a head coach, unlike beef curry or is it chicken curry?
Maybe he will meet up with Johnson somewhere along the line.
========================
The Pistons are said to be talking to the Thunder and one other team about Amir Johnson and No, 15 to clear additional salary cap room.
The talk is the Pistons figure to bring back Antonio McDyess and need to make more moves to have enough salary cap space with a shrinking cap to make big offers to two free agents.
It’s uncertain, of course, as one general manager speculated with the collapse of the auto industry and the anticipated effect on the Pistons the team won’t go for maximum type deals. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guys the Pistons pursue are the Knicks’ David Lee and maybe Utah’s Paul Millsap.
Joe Dumars’ history is to pursue less coveted or smaller name guys like when he got Chauncey Billups for an exception deal, Ben Wallace when nobody knew who he was and Rasheed Wallace when no one wanted him.
http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/smith_090615.html?rss=true
Looking good.
Heh Joe. Trade Johnson to the Thunder.
They then would start
PF - Johnson
SF - Green
C - Thabeet (Taken with the 3rd pick)
SG - KD
PG - Westbrook
Lots of scoring
Lots of young legs
VG interior defense and rebounding
Looking good.
Do it Joe - Johnson to the Thunder
joe dumars don’t need to mess up this team no more than what he did this season. he need figure out how to make the pistons a contender again so i don’t have to laker b.s. out in california!!!! first start by firing the worthless coach name curry and get us at lease some wnba championship experience!!!!
if the magic can make it to the finals anything possible
@Mike:
71
Ya I would love to have Laimbeer as our coach, thats what I wanted after we fired Flip. Maybe Curry can have Bill as an assistant this year, so that when he gets fired mid-season Bill can just step right in and show him how it’s done?
Joe D has passed on Lam, his teammate, a number of times. The real question is, why?
After reading BL’s responses, I really give him props for saying “I want the NBA and will do what it takes.” Hell, he could collect a check on the Shock bench, make the playoffs and some coin if that’s what he was in it for. Good for him.
I’d like to see BL on the bench along with Cowens coaching big men. Maxi, Amir (if he’s around) or Taj Gibson, Gortat, Kwame, I like the idea of BL butting heads with these guys. He definitely got the most out of his talent (as did Cowens) so there would be no days or games off.
As for BL in the NBA, I think it will be hard. He’s got that personality that you think if he challenged someone and they didn’t respond, you could see a “locker room incident” thing happening. There’s nothing wrong being a live wire if you’re properly grounded. It appears on first pass that BL is but it will be tough.
I can tell you one thing: We wouldn’t have had the thing known as the AI clusterfuck this season with Bill on the sidelines. The first time there’s a problem Bill wears his two rings in and says “This is why we’re doing it my way now STFU !!” (whistle blows and the team breaks up for practice)
Need help: Haven’t seen anything on the Pistons summer league. Are they in LV again this year? Thanks.
Off topic, ATL is shopping Josh Smith to afford to re-sign Mike Bibby. I guess the Woodson beef was worse than I thought.
Josh Smith is an expensive target, but somebody to consider, I think.
Yes they are playing in the Las Vegas summer league again, along with 20 other teams. The teams with the first 10 picks in the draft will attend the summer league as well, so we will get a chance to see the first 10 picks in action. It starts July 10th-19th.
I like Josh Smith and I wouldn’t say his salary is ridiculous, but it is a bit more then I would want to spend on him. His career numbers are 14 and 7…not bad, but I think we could get that same production, if not better, from a guy like Charlie Villanueva(career numbers of 13 and 6) for a LOT cheaper.
I like Smith’s defensive game, his propensity to dunk on motherfuckers, and his overall intimidation of lesser men.
I love Smith. He’s retarded, but he’s STILL not even near his ceiling offensively or defensively… he has the game and physical tools to be a better Pippen– not happening, but that’s what he’s working with. Honestly, for $10m/year, he’s really one of the better bargains and more exciting players out there. I think he HAS to be played at the SF though. I know he’s been playing PF in ATL, but I’m CONVINCED he’s a SF. Especially if we can get an offensive PF like Boozer.
How about Amir plus some conditional picks for Smith? ATL saves like $6mil this year and Amir expires at the end of 2010, so it works for their purposes (plus, he’ll get more PT there, so he wins too, I guess). The $6mil extra we end up paying Smith leaves us with around $11mil under the cap. That’s enough to sign Boozer. Before any other moves, we look like this:
Stuck/MFWB
Rip/AA
Smith/Tay/Sharpe
Boozer/Max
Kwame
Notice the obvious? Logjam at SF, no backup C. Easy fix– Tay/#15 for Kaman/Thornton (again). Again, salaries are a wash between Kamen/Tay and #15/Thornton (makes like $1.5mil), so we’re just under the cap again. Now we look like this:
Stuck/MFWB
Rip/AA
Smith/Thornton
Boozer/Max
Kaman/Kwame
We eliminate the “Thornton is a ballhog/I hate him” problem by making him our designated “athletic scoring wingman off the bench.” We’re now legitimately two-deep at every single position. Defensively, we’ve got the best “free safety” in the game at SF, two bruisers at C, ball-hawkers off the bench at the two guard spots, energy and shot-blocking from the backup PF, and hopefully a commitment to team defense all throughout the starting lineup. Offensively, we can post up the 4 and 5, the 4 can shoot 18-footers, the 3 is our open floor finisher guy, the 1 and 3 can slash, Rip shoots the jumpers, MFWB and Thornton is one of the best bench scoring duos in the league, Kwame and Max and gobble up the garbage…
I really like this lineup. And it works, money-wise, and need-wise for us. Not to mention we still have all our 2nd-rounders that we can use to stock up on overseas youth or package together to get into the back end of the 1st round to take whatever decent PG is still available.
Questions? Concerns? Snide remarks?
Snide remarks: Gee, I wonder how opposing teams will defend that group. It would be tough; they certainly can’t pack the lane with the deep-shooting prowess of Stuckey, Hamilton, and Smith.
You asked for snide remarks.
Joel - That’s some quality offseason speculation. If you are going to play this game, go all out.
I like Thornton paired with AA if only because it gives AA another year to keep developing his offensive game.
Well first of all, I don’t think we have to send LAC our first round pick with Tay to get Kaman and Thornton, I think we could just send them a future second rounder. Although the Atlanta deal might have to be sweetened a bit. I don’t think a package of Amir and some conditional picks is gonna cut it. I would be ecstatic if it did because that’s a good price to get Smith. Maybe we could throw in Maxiell as well, that would still save them and us about $2 mil. So that would give us $13 mil to spend rather than $11 mil(if ur numbers are right - im assuming they are). Then, how about signing Villanueva(starting at $5 mil) and another PF like Millsap perhaps(starting at $8 mil)? Under your scenario we would then have:
Stuckey/MFWB
RIP/Afflalo
Smith/Thornton
Villanueva/Millsap
Kaman/Kwame
Not to mention still have ALL of our picks(assuming the Smith deal u proposed would be accepted). So we could feasibly get Lawson, Taj Gibson, Danny Green, and Jodie Meeks. But that still remains to be seen. All in all pretty nice team man. I definitely wouldn’t complain about that.
Rip has become a relatively reliable deep-ball threat in his later years, and for all our sake I hope Stuckey and MFWB and shooting a thousand jumpshots a day all summer. Hopefully the deep ball won’t be as big of a problem as it could be (assuming that nobody improves at all).
Still though, even our bench is pretty balanced offensively and defensively. MFWB is a pest of the highest order, AA is a fabulous defender, Thornton is at least athletic so he can’t be that terrible, and then Max and Kwame living in the lane making life difficult for everyone– I like it. Then we’ve got Will slashing and dishing, AA shooting spot-ups (hopefully at an improved clip), and Thornton being the “one-on-one/get a shot whenever” guy, letting Max and Kwame just eat up the garbage.
If we don’t send them our #15 (and believe me, I don’t want to), we are Thornton’s salary over the cap ($1.7mil). We give up our #15 and the guaranteed money that goes with it, we’re right at or under the cap. It’s giving up ~$1.5mil to save like $4-5mil.
My main comment would be that being a fake GM is hard work. Joel’s scenario is pretty awesome, if a bit fanciful, but it makes it very difficult to resign MFWB, Stuck, and Kwame the following year. Why can’t money be free?
Also, I would take Villanueva for 5M/per. Seems highly unlikely, though.
The Smith deal isn’t about “fairness” or “equal value”– they’re trying to free up money to resign Bibby. That means they need someone with cap space (us) to take on salary (Smith) for little or next to nothing (Amir). It’s essentially the same situation as the Camby deal from last year. That’s why we don’t need to “sweeten” the deal by much– we’re already being plenty “sweet” by eating salary and providing a young talent in return.
These are the types of trades you dream about, the type of trades that you stock up cap-space for so that you’re in position to take advantage of. A fire-sale, if you will.
Why the hell would atlanta free up space to sign Mike Bibby? I would hate myself if I was a Hawks fan. Jesus. I know they need his outside shooting/mediocre pg skills, but good god, Josh Smith is way more valuable.
@Colin
I have no idea, but that’s the word from ATL. It’s absolutely retarded. But isn’t somebody else’s idiocy the exact reason why we have all this cap space? So we can take advantage of it?
Also, from Chad Ford’s latest mock draft: analysis of the Clippers’ situation:
For the past several years, we’ve been blessed with at least a little suspense when it comes to who will be the No. 1 pick. Not this year. Griffin is going to be a Clipper. Sources around the league say that trade talks with the Clippers are virtually nonexistent when it comes to Griffin. Instead the Clippers are focusing on finding a new home for Chris Kaman or Zach Randolph.
BTW, I hate Zach Randolph.
And some more from Hawk-land:
“The big trade rumor flying around (if you’re already tired of the Shaq-to-Cleveland talk) centers on the Hawks’ Josh Smith. Several league sources told ESPN.com that the Hawks have been working hard the past few weeks to see whether they can find a taker for Smith.
The Hawks have some financial issues coming into the summer. Two key players, Mike Bibby and Marvin Williams, are free agents. So are a few others on the roster — Josh Childress, Zaza Pachulia and Ronald Murray. Although the Hawks would like to keep those players, they can’t afford to pay all of them. That has opened the door to the possibility of trading Smith, who, although talented, has a reputation as a difficult player to coach.
The Hawks have had no problem finding teams interested in Smith. The issue is the whopping $6 million trade kicker attached to his contract. The trade kicker essentially would require the team that trades for Smith to pay him the $6 million immediately. In this economic climate, many owners will balk at the payment.”
WTF is a trade kicker? Does it count against cap space? This shit is complex.
I have no idea. I wish I knew, because it sound terrible.
Hahaha, “it sound terrible.”
That sound like Curry-speak.
Well, apparently the Hawks know point guards. Sheldon williams before D-Will & CP3, Acie Law before Stuck. Who are we to question. And I think the trade has something to do with Woodson/Smith interaction.
I would assume the kicker is: Smith makes 10M but if traded his salary become 16M this year (and just an increase in 6M for just this year). So to make the contract work, you need 10M offset, but once the trade becomes “official” the 6M kicks in. I would assume it doesn’t kick in prior to the trade because until the trade actually is signed on the dotted line it isn’t a “payable” due Smith.
OTOH, if it’s a yearly 6M kicker, they’re fucked.
I don’t think I’m down with trading for Smith if he makes 16M next year.
Here’s a Marc Stein article explaining trade kickers in relation to the KG trade.
I don’t think anyone is. That might be the Hawks’ problem.
Summary: They suck, and if you make the trade before July 1st the bonus is split and half placed on the prior year’s cap (which would put us into Luxury Tax Territory I believe). After July 1, the whole thing goes on this years balance sheet, which would eat up most of our cap space. Long story short, I’d be surprised if anybody traded for Smith.
Ya I don’t think I want Smith anymore. Unless there was some way for Atlanta to pay his kicker, but I don’t think there is. It sucks that Smith can’t even waive it if he wanted to.
@ Joel: If we have already exhausted our cap space signing other free agents, then we can exceed the cap to do a trade with 125% rule. Meaning, if we have already spent our cap money, we could still send them Tay and a FUTURE second rounder for Kaman and Thornton - straight up. Even though we would be taking more salary in return it still meets the requirements of the 125% rule(not sure what the technical name for it is).
@ Colin: I think Villanueva could be had for $5 mil per. He only made a little over $3 mil this past season and I don’t think any other teams, the bucks especially, are going to be offer him big money. We would be offering him a long-term contract STARTING at $5 mil. I suggested a 4 year/$24 mil contract. So I’m guessing the years would break down something like $5 mil, $5.5 mil, $6.5 mil, and then finally $7 mil. That final year he would be making TWICE what he made this year. So while the deal may still be low-balling him a little bit I think he will realize that with the economy he may not get anything much better.
@ Colin: I just used the 10M as an example. I have no idea what he actually makes.
That kicker probably was thrown in there during the last negotiations (when ??) and he was probably being mentioned in sign-n-trades. There’s got to be a good reason for Atl mgmnt to do that. . . never mind, I just answered my own question (Atl mngmnt).
It might have also been he took less money so they could sign someone and if that blew up he wanted some money back.
From his Chat:
Chad Ford:
A little cap relief so they can sign all of their other free agents like Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Zaza Pachulia, Josh Childress and Ronald Murray.The problem is that teams don’t want to pay his trade kicker which is $7.2 million (not the $6 million I reported yesterday).
He ain’t going anywhere.
Wowzers. $7.2 mil? I bet every free agent in history wishes they could’ve worked such a ridiculous “kicker” into their contracts.
$7.2 million EXTRA, just for being traded! That’s better than a no-trade clause in my opinion. “Want to get rid of me? Sure, just throw me more money than the average human will ever see in their lifetime real quick and we’re good.”
The NBA. Where reality happens.
Yeah, he’s gotta be kissing his agent’s ass every day. Of course there is the possibility that he really wanted to be part of the hawks and what they want to so that’s why he put it in there. So he wouldn’t be shipped to a shitty team mid season so Atlanta could pick up that missing “piece.”
And let’s say he’s at 7M, that’s now 14.2 million. We’re talking max contract money almost.
Josh Smith makes 10.8M this year. In the final year of his contract (2012/13) He’ll make 13M
Good God, that an 18M dollar contract this year if he’s traded. Shrewd agent.
It’s time for the pistons to give bill Liambeer some kind of job in the org.
Freddy! You got a new keyboard!!!
lol@MP
Yes, I laughed out loud.
I think we should trade for Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, and Chris Paul.
I found some information on the trade kicker on mlive.com thats diferent the above it states although Josh gets paid the whole amount this yr. the whole amount doesn’t count toward the salary cap this yr. instead its broke down over the length of the contract in this cASE 4 YRS AND IS CHARGED ONE FOURTH PER YR. TIL PAID WHICH IS WHAT 1.7 SOMETHING MORE PER YR WHICH IS NOT BAD FOR HIS TALENT LEVEL MAKING THIS YR. ABOUT 12 MIL. THE SAME AS BOOZER , IF THE ARTICLE IS CORRECT.
i think if the pistons r not going to make any good free agent deals or trades this summer they need to concentrate on selecting good draft picks, because their r some good steals in this draft due to stupidity.
Nice research, Defor. I hope that is the case. Got a link please?
the pistons need to grab these two players in the draft if they want to turn around the team,Terrence Williams and josh heytvelt. josh heytvelt is a steal for a second round pick. if they pass up on heytvelt, joey d in future will be kicking his self in the ass.as for Williams i got a funny feeling that once he hit the nba, you’re going to see a special player not on the level of a KOBE or LEBRON yet. But in the right system he can be a special player, believe me i know!!!!!
MP, the info Defor is talking about was courtesy of Dave Dial at Full Court Press.
Link
@ joe: While I do like terrence williams, I can’t DISAGREE with you more on Josh Heytvelt. If we wanna take a flier on him with our last second round pick I guess I’m fine with that(as long as Gibson and Aminu are off the board), but I just don’t think he will be much of anything in the NBA except a big body in the middle. I watch a lot of college basketball but I only had the Big Ten Network, so I didn’t see many WCC games. But I did see some games that he played in(nationally televised games and march madness games)and the things I saw coincided with the things I heard. He does have a soft touch around the basket, yes, but once he gets the ball he is a BLACK HOLE! He does not know what passing out of the post means. It’s almost as if he never gets the ball, and once he gets it he doesn’t know what to do with it but attack the basket. And by attack I don’t mean nice post-up moves because he doesn’t really play with his back to the basket from what I saw. Plus, I don’t know how he will be able to handle himself defensively at the next level. He has had off-court issues(he likes shroomz - can’t hate the guy for that!) and has already had injury problems(he already has pins placed in his foot). So while I don’t think he is the worst prospect available(that honor belongs to BJ Mullens), I would rather have Taj Gibson or Alade Aminu(Gibson more than Aminu). However, if we did draft him, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, the man does have a nice stroke that ranges out to about 15′-18′. I have been wrong before though, I thought Spencer Hawes was going to be a bust too, and now he is looking like a solid player.
Speaking of Terrence Williams, it seems The Glove, Gary Payton himself, has taken him under his wing.
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/draft/2009/06/16/nba_20090616_draft_terrence.nba/
I don’t know how to post a link on this website(everytime I do it the message never gets sent), so I will just say that it seems Gary Payton has taken Terrence Williams under his wing. You can find the video in the NBA home page right now(and most likely tomorrow mornig too when most people will see this).
oops…I’m AFI.
KNONIKjose i respect your opinion, i think it’s a good observation but some of it is media driven like the shroomz, the police did found the shroomz in heytvelt car but the passenger wouldn’t came it and since heytvelt is not a snitch, he is paying the consequences in this year draft. a couple years ago before that incident happen his draft status was top five. so that why i say that he will be steal in second round for the pistons. heytvelt is still as good of player if not better than when he was rank in the top five. you don’t believe me look up heytvelt vs unc. that’s all the proof you need KRONIKjose.
Wait, wait, wait– hold up a got damn second. A second round pick got busted for SHROOMS?
SIGN THAT KID NOW.
I’m psilocybin and I approve this message.
LOL, I don’t know how we went from talking about Bill Laimbeer as a possible coach of the Pistons to a potential second round pick being busted for shroomz…(shakes his head as he sparks the bowl)
Uh oh…loks like someone might be giving Lamb a chance at a head coaching gig. http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/06/17/mchale-out-in-minnesota-tweets-love/
im just curious on what titles have curry won as a player or as a assisant coach that make joey d think curry is the pistons neo?
i think joe dumar threw away a great chance to win championship this year, when he traded billups for ivo. i really believe the way we started off the season was different from preveious years. stuckey, bynum and AA was playing good minutes. while billups and rip was finishing the games with good energy. to me i think the key to us winning was three good pointguards because that what we had when we won in 04-Billups/hunter/james.this year Billups/stuckey/bynum. the reason i believe that is we had a pointguard to pick up billups sack, when he start falling off.
I know, let’s just go after Phil Jackson.
Well, Michael Rosenberg answered my question…sorta lol
http://freep.com/article/20090616/COL22/90616095/Bill+Laimbeer+has+no+shot+at+coaching+in+the+NBA
The comments section took Rosenberg to task over the column. While I respect Rosenberg’s opinion, there was quite a bit of cheap shot-edness about the piece. I actually think he’d make an excellent head coach one day. Shame it likely won’t be with the Pistons.
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit:
“$11 Million For Gordon?: Bulls.com’s Sam Smith dropped a little nugget in his draft workout report yesterday, suggesting that he’s heard rumor that Raymond Brothers the agent for Ben Gordon is telling people he has an $11 million per year commitment from the Detroit Pistons for Gordon. ”
“That said, Brothers did have talks with teams last summer and this alleged promise could be a holdover from last year. That’s said; $11 million for Ben Gordon is a huge chunk of change and could set the bar fairly high for other free agents like Orlando’s Hedo Turkoglu.
The other by product of an $11 million deal to Gordon means the Pistons would not have the $10 million plus needed to lure away Paul Millsap from Utah, and it would reduce the odds Detroit makes a run at Turkoglu the only real threat for the Magic.
The timing of this news likely means this is chatter, so don’t get too excited, but it is interesting to hear that Gordon could fetch that much on the open market, but this really comes off as Brothers setting the bar in hopes that Chicago will come to the table with an offer in the $8 to $9 million range. ”
WTF??
Gotta love agents, but if Joe D makes this deal at that amount I definitely am not buy NBA PASS next season. For that kind of money?
Let’s consider the source, MarkB. Sam Smith is a notorious rumor-monger. He’s hardly reliable.
Regarding Ben Gordon: if we sign him for anywhere CLOSE to $10mil, we’ll be the laughingstock of the league, and rightfully so.
Regarding Laimbeer: there’s no worse, less-deserving coach in the league right now than Michael Curry. How Rosenberg can put out such a hit on Laimbeer is just unprofessional. One gets the impression that maybe Laimbeer was a little short with Rosenberg once in an interview and hurt his little sensibilities so much he felt he needed to put out a hit on the FREEP’s reader’s dimes. Unprofessional and unfounded for sure.
Regarding Haytvelt and the shrooms: the kid was going to GONZAGA. I think shrooms actually grow on your cream cheese in Washington if you let it go bad. Plus, with Sheed leaving, I need to have one player at least who I know I could party with.
@ Birdman: Yeah, I’ve read some of Smith’s articles and he’s a homer. Perhaps he’s getting a cut of Gordon’s contract and needs to jack it up / create a bidding war. lol
As for Haytvelt: So the kid did shrooms. Guy was in college for pete’s sakes. If I had held against me for what I did in college for every job, I’d be chronically unemployed.
Uh oh, Ben Gordon is reportedly going around bragging about an $11,000,000 offer from Detroit:
http://blogs.bulls.com/chicago_bulls_blog/2009/06/bulls-look-at-guards-who-may-be-in-their-future.html
3rd paragraph.
My bad.
I was reading the Rosenberg article wondering why such disdain for a guy who after the Pistons employed hundreds in the Detroit area, and then went on to make Detroit’s WNBA franchise into a Dynasty.
I’m confident that Joe D won’t sign Gordon to a big contract like that. I guess I could see him being foolish enough to sign him for maybe 7M, but if there is one thing Joe has proven, it’s that he just doesn’t overpay players.
I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I wouldn’t mind Ben Gordon on our team under two conditions. First of all, Rip would need to be traded and secondly, it wouldn’t be at a starting salary of 11M per year. I think Gordon could work b/c he’s a great 3 point shooter, which we desperately need, who doesn’t need some one else to drive and kick for him in order to get his shot off. He’s also 5 years younger then Rip…although I do think Rip will age relatively well.
Being internet GM for a moment, here are some moves I think are plausible for this summer and make us a better team. We trade Rip for Boozer, then sign Gortat and Gordon. We may have enough money left to sign a back up SF, some one like Matt Barnes. Not sure if Utah would take on Rip’s salary, but he’d be a great fit in their offense and they need a SG. Under this scenario we become a much better rebounding team, acquire a 20/10 big guy who can space the floor, add a great 3 point shooter and become a younger team with room for growth over the next 3-5 years.
Our line-up becomes:
PG: Stuckey (23), Bynum (26)
SG: Gordon (26), Afflalo (23)
SF: Prince (29), FA signing/pick 15/Sharpe
PF: Boozer (27), Maxiell(26)/Amir(22)
C : Gortat (25), Kwame (27)
The only player who’d be in their 30’s at the end of the year would be Tay. Everyone else would be a couple years away from their prime or just entering it.
I don’t mind that team at all, fellow Gordon liker(trust me, we are definitely in the minority). I think Gordon is a good player and I have argued him being on the Pistons for quite some time now. I would only want him if we found another home for RIP because I don’t want to play RIP at SF and play small ball. And I would only want him at $7-$8 mil. That team doesn’t look bad, I’m not sure if the Jazz would want to do a sign-and-trade for Boozer. They have Brewer at SG(he’s going to practice with the olympic team) and I think they actually WANT Boozer to opt out, meaning they want to free up that money, so that they can re-sign Millsap. If they did a sign-and-trade with us for RIP, the cap space would be null and they might lose out on both Boozer and Millsap.
the fact that possession of shrooms in washington state is a FELONY is absurd. when i read he had a FELONY drug arrest, i thought he was smuggling meth across the canadian border. mushrooms?!? FELONY?!? HAS THE WORLD (and specifically the state of washington) GONE MAD?!?
The idea of a Stuckey/Gordon starting backcourt definitely intrigues me. They both basically cover for eachother’s weaknesses– Stuckey’s “bigness” at the PG makes up for Gordon’s “smallness” (Stuckey guards the SG’s, Gordon the PG’s). Stuckey is primarily a slasher (at this point so far in his career; who knows how improved his jumper will be next year), while Gordon is both a lights-out shooter with infinite range AND a better slasher/finisher at the rim than Stuckey at this point; I would guess they’ll both be playing the role of “combo guard,” where they both end up averaging around 5 apg.
If it works, it could be one of the more exiting younger backcourts in the league. If this went through though, it would make me NOT want to get rod of Tay (Rip instead), because I think his ability to play “point forward,” ala Hedo in Orlando, would be invaluable in this situation.
Who do we trade Rip for? That’s the question. Also, if we sign Gordon, does that leave us enough money to get Boozer too? And maybe that could be the reason why it’s rumored we’d sell off Amir/15th for capspace– wouldn’t that net us an extra $4mil or so? That makes a total of around $21mil we can play round with…
So maybe we sign Gordon for around $8mil/yr. Then we get Boozer for $10mil/yr. That leaves us with $3mil in capspace. We ALSO have a lame duck veteran SG to put on the trade market and a slew of early second-rounders. Here’s the current roster…
Stuck/MFWB
Gordon/Rip/AA
Tayshaun/Sleepy
Boozer/Max
Kwame
Obvious problems– logjam at SG, no reliable backup SF, no starting C. My solution:
We need to do the LAC deal (Tay+picks for Kaman/Thornton), but involving Rip instead of Tayshaun. Now this poses a problem because the Clips have absolutely no need for another SG, unless they want to bury E-Gordon on the bench (doubt it). So we’ll need to do some type of 3-way trade– I’m not even going to try to propose possibly ideas on a 3-way, so we’ll just assume it goes through:
Stuck/MFWB
Gordon/AA
Tay/Thornton/Sleepy
Boozer/Max
Kaman/Kwame
Taking on Thornton’s salary ($1.7mil) eats up a little of the $3mil surplus (Rip and Kaman are literally a wash), but we’re still under the cap, with possibly enough for a veteran’s minimum signing (who? be my guest; don’t really care). That’s a solid squad. We definitely need some chips to fall our way though.
Basically, it all depends on what we can get for Rip. Hell, maybe we ship him back to the Wizards for their #5 pick and Darius Songalia or some other smaller contract they want out of… there are a ton of possibilities out there. But like I said, if we sign Gordon, the determining factor for EVERYTHING else that goes down is who/what we can get in return for the Ripster…
@JD
Yes. Yes it has.
If we trade amir and the pick for JUST cap space that gives us an extra $5 mil. I don’t think the Clips would want to do the trade for RIP, like you said they already have eric gordon so they wouldn’t wanna have a logjam at SG either. But, if Trader Joe could pull it off that would be awesome, because the contracts still match up.
On a side note, I read somewhere on one of Langlois’ pieces that if Joe did trade the 15 pick, then we fans should be pretty excited because that would mean that he has plans set in motion for the money, so I would love to see us trade the pick. I just maintain that I would like to get the 25 pick back as well. We would only be losing out on $1 mil, what would that hurt?
@ JD, I’m not entirely sure how MUCH he had, but I think something that grows from Mother Earth(or cow shit) should be legal(hence why I’m in love with Mary Jane). I have seen more accidents caused by alcohol rather than weed, or shroomz for that matter.
Also, forgot one other point I had to make about us getting Ben Gordon. Well I was thinking to my self about what I DON’T like about Ben Gordon, and the only thing that came to mind was the fact that he is undersized for a SG. But then I thought about it some more, and Joe D was only 6′3″ when he played. Thomas and Joe were only 6′1″ and 6′3″ together in the back-court. If we had Stuckey and BG they would be 6′5″ and 6′3″. Now I’m not saying that Stuckey and BG would be the next coming of Zeke and Joe D but they would at least be exciting to watch.
I don’t like his penchant for drama.
I like other things about him though. I’m not a Ben Gordon hater. I just get tired of reading about him airing his team out. I don’t wanna see him putting Dumars on blast in a year or two ’cause he thinks he’s not getting enough burn or something.
7-8M and he behaves himself, I’ll see how it goes.
I want chemistry and a renewed dedication to defensive prowess.
going 10+ mill on any of these FA cats (turk, gordon, boozer, millsap) seems silly. my hope is the economy keeps prices relatively reasonable. i’d like to get some benefit from this economic shitstorm. an improved unemployment rate would be first on my list, but pistons signing dudes on the cheap would be on the list somewhere.
I think I’m even more against signing Gordon after reading the latest comments. It creates a scenario with too many variables. We’d have to sign him to a reasonable contract and then trade Rip, when there is really no market for him. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
Don’t know if this would work but what if we set up a three team trade with New York and Washington we send rip to washington washington sends the number 5 and somebody with an expiring contract to New York who send us lee and Chandler might be a way to move Rip and pick up a big if the numbers work.
Joel: Loved the ATL scenario.
*fangasm*
do all of that, fire MC, hire Lambieer and I might just stay on as a fan next year.
it took me a minute to figure out what “MFWB” was… MFWB!!!
laimbeer good womans COACH and better power FORWARD. just epinion
its not about “only” being able to coach women, its about being able to coach.
Bill Lambieer is an asshole. Everyone hates Lambieer but everyone respects him.
Michael Curry is a Pussy. Everyone is indifferent to Curry and noone respects him.
correction, Bill Lambieer is a “dick”
to stay true to the Team America quote..
Laimbeer is so hated, he is the only NBA alum that Scottie Pippen ignores in every way possible. If he floats into Pip’s visage, he averts his eyes to another direction. Serious.
a little late to the party, but does anyone else think Laimbeer left after a few games to specifically force management to keep his protoges for coach and gm? By leaving when he did he made it impossible for them to find a new coach and clear the bench, and bought his people some time to run things. It’s a class move, to me at least.
Ryan: the thought crossed my mind, though it’s my understanding the succession plan was already in place for a couple of years in case he got an NBA job.