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McDyess may stay on the bench

Published by Matt Watson on April 29, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Injuries. 7 Comments

It sounds like the Pistons will stick with Sunday’s rotation featuring Jason Maxiell in the starting lineup and Antonio McDyess coming off the bench. From A. Sherrod Blakely:

After Sunday’s win, McDyess said he would not have a problem coming off the bench. In fact, he sounded as if it’s a role he would welcome.

“Coming off the bench is what I’m comfortable doing,” McDyess said.

“Starting? It’s just a routine thing. I feel like now, I get in there … when I start, I feel like a robot sometimes. But when I come off the bench, I feel I’ve got to step up and make something happen.”

Because Detroit’s starting five consists of so many scorers, McDyess often winds up being the forgotten man.

“He’s kind of invisible out there,” Saunders said. “But when he comes off the bench, because of some of the people he’s coming (in) with, they look to him a little bit more.”

I’m torn; on the one hand, McDyess did get into a nice rhythm on Sunday, shooting 5-8 from the field to finish with 10 points and six boards in 20 minutes, but it came at the expense of Maxiell, who was the invisible guy with just four points and five boards in 32 minutes. That said, Maxiell tends to be inconsistent from game to game coming off the bench anyway, so it’s probably a wash.

Plus, even after starting the entire season, McDyess still tends to defer when playing with the other four starters, so keeping him aggressive is a good thing. (As would be giving the likes of Arron Afflalo, Jarvis Hayes and Amir Johnson more than a combined three minutes, but I digress …) This also allows Max to match-up with athletic rookie Thaddeus Young, which he’s better suited to do.

On a side note, remember how all of us were wondering what exactly happened during halftime on Sunday? McDyess confirmed that he spoke up, which is rare for him. From Mitch Albom in the Free Press:

“It wasn’t a speech,” he said Monday, almost embarrassed. “It was basically the truth. I just told them it looked like we were the team that was the seventh seed and they looked like the two seed. I just let them know we were way better than this. … Why are we playing like we’re scared? We didn’t play all this way and go this long to give it up right now.

“I guess everyone kind of heard me.”

[…] “Normally, I don’t speak at all,” he admitted. “I let all the captains and everyone say something. But I felt it was time for someone to say something. … I mean, the last couple of games we came in the locker room and didn’t say nothing to each other at all. Just sat down and didn’t say a word.”

After surgery, McDyess questionable for Game 4

Published by Matt Watson on April 26, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Injuries. 12 Comments

From Keith Langlois of Pistons.com:

McDyess broke his nose midway through the third quarter of Friday’s nightmarish Game 3 loss at Wachovia Center and returned to Detroit where he underwent successful surgery Saturday at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital as performed by Dr. Gene Rontal. McDyess’ status for Game 4 is listed as questionable.

If McDyess is unable to go, the Pistons likely would replace him in the starting lineup with third-year forward Jason Maxiell. They would still have plenty of depth available to them with Theo Ratliff and Amir Johnson coming off the bench, as well as Walter Herrmann, who has been on the inactive list through the first three games of the first-round series.

[…] McDyess has been matched up defensively to start games against Philadelphia rookie Thaddeus Young, who has gotten off to fast offensive starts in all three games. Young has scored 10, 11 and 10 points in the first three games of the series. Long and athletic, Young might be a better physical matchup for Johnson, though it’s unlikely the Pistons would thrust (sic — trust?) the inexperienced Johnson enough to start him.

I’d love to see it happen, but I don’t think it will, and sadly for all the wrong reasons. Starting Amir Johnson would be admitting that DNP-ing him in Game 1 and sitting him until the game was well out of hand in Game 3 was a mistake, and coaches rarely do that until they’re facing an elimination game. To be honest, I haven’t seen a coach so reluctant to give a guy a chance since Rick Carlisle finally relented and put Tayshaun Prince on Tracy McGrady in 2003.

But unlike McGrady, Young isn’t one of the league’s truly extraordinary talents — he’s one of the very small handful of players in this league who’s actually younger than Amir Johnson. Why in the world would you keep throwing veterans who are 10-15 years older than Young and continue to be surprised when the Pistons look slow? If McDyess can’t play, I’m all for matching up Maxiell with Reggie Evans and Johnson with Young; who actually gets the start or plays more minutes is irrelevant.

Update: The “wait a minute, maybe the Pistons should play Amir” meme is catching on. A. Sherrod Blakely weighs in and got a quote from Amir:

Saunders said if McDyess doesn’t play, he would be replaced by Jason Maxiell, Theo Ratliff or possibly Amir Johnson.

Of the three, Johnson might be the most intriguing possibility.

With Philadelphia going with a smaller lineup that includes Thaddeus Young at power forward — he’s really a long small forward — Johnson might be a better match up for Detroit.

“We are kind of the same with our quickness,” Johnson said. “I just have to stay ready and wait to be called on. And when I get a chance to play, don’t make mistakes and just try and help the team win.”

Cross your fingers, but Chauncey’s banged up

Published by Matt Watson on April 23, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Injuries. 43 Comments

From Dana Gauruder’s blog for the Oakland Press:

The last thing the Pistons need after losing Game 1 is an injury to one of their regulars. That’s why it was alarming to see Chauncey Billups walking slowly and flexing his right knee after practice. According to Billups and Flip Saunders, it was just some minor soreness. Billups attributed it to a tough practice while walking to his car after leaving the practice facility, though he was held out of a practice last week because of soreness. “I’m all right,” he said several times. Saunders didn’t act concerned, either. “Chauncey’s always in a situation where he gets hit a little bit but he’s OK,” he said.

It’s probably nothing, but every Detroit paper mentioned it.

Pistons tighten ship with players-only meeting

Published by Matt Watson on March 26, 2008 in Injuries and Rumors. 4 Comments

Dana Gauruder of the Oakland Press doesn’t post much on his blog, but it’s usually interesting stuff when he does. Such as today:

Curious ongoings before the Pistons’ shootaround in Toronto this morning.

The media was banned from going into the locker room for a few minutes while the Pistons held a team meeting. Afterward, they were vague about what was going on.

I didn’t appear to be anything major, like a rift between Flip Saunders and the players or in-fighting among the team. It was more of re-focusing, if you will. Apparently, some players had been coasting or blowing off stretchng exercises, weight-room work, etc.

Richard Hamilton and Juan Dixon both suffered injuries in recent days - Hamilton a sore hip, Dixon a strained calf. Dixon hasn’t been around long enough for anyone to get mad at him, so Rip was probably one, if not the main, target.

The last thing the Pistons want is for people to coast into the playoffs and lose their sharpness when they need it most.

“Just something that needed to be said,” Tayshaun Prince said. “Trying to gear up for these last 12 games or so, just to kind of finish off the right way.”

A. Sherrod Blakely also made mention of the team meeting, though without connecting the dots to Rip:

Players were relatively mum on the meeting’s specifics, but there were two general themes that seemed to be points of discussion.

1) Conditioning — lately, the Pistons have been bothered by a few nagging injuries, in part because the players don’t necessarily follow through as well as they should on the pre-game and shoot-around conditioning drills led by Kander. There was a noticeable improvement in their focus during those drills this morning, which may very well be tied into the team meeting.

2) Playoff preparation — A couple different players mentioned how it’s time for them to start to not just think about the playoffs, but start developing the kind of habits needed to ensure they don’t suffer yet another early playoff exit.

Chris McCosky basically has the same in his blog, but adds that part of the meeting was led by Arnie Kander:

Strange shoot-around this morning. The Pistons booted everybody — coaches, ballboys, equipment guys and even the media relations man Cletus Lewis — out of the locker room and had a players only meeting. They rarely do that, especially when things are running smoothly, as they are right now.

Part of the meeting was conducted by Arnie Kander, the Pistons strength and conditioning guru. He, apparently, just got on the players about maintaining all the pre- and post-game (and practice) stretching and weight room work. With the playoffs on the horizon, this is not the time to slack off.

For a veteran team like the Pistons, you’d expect this type of self-policing now and then. Makes you wonder, though, if the team feels Rip Hamilton’s current hip ailment could have been prevented — both he and Juan Dixon are doubtful once again for tonight’s game.

This is the time of year that the Pistons should be easing into top gear while preparing for the playoffs, not making adjustments on the fly by entering the stretch run without their leading scorer. But still, it’s better they had this conversation today than a few weeks from now.

Rasheed may sit tonight

Published by Matt Watson on March 7, 2008 in Injuries. 4 Comments

Krista Jahnke reports that Rasheed Wallace sat out of this morning’s shoot-around in favor of getting treatment — or as Theo Ratliff would say, having Arnie Kander lay his hands on him. Whether the miracle worker gets Wallace in good enough shape to play tonight is still unknown, but Jahnke suggests the Pistons might hold him out in favor of seeing what Theo Ratliff has in the tank, which sounds like a good plan to me. I mean, it’s just the Knicks, right?

Also, this was kind of funny:

Pistons rookie Arron Afflalo missed the bus to the Garden because the departure time had changed and he didn’t get the memo. He had to cab over on his own. Team security guru Jerry Hendon waited by the elevators for Afflalo to appear. When he did, he told him solemnly, “Coach said he doesn’t want you to come in. He said to just go back to the hotel.”

Afflalo looked totally deflated. He asked, “Really, coach Saunders said that?”

“Yup,’ Jerry said, pulling him back toward the elevator. “He said just go on back.”

A few seconds passed before Jerry finally cracked up, letting Afflalo know it was all a joke.

It was quite funny, especially considering Afflalo is the last person you’d expect to get in trouble for missing a bus. He’s typically the first one in the arena on game days and is one of the team’s hardest workers.

Amir’s absence explained

Published by Matt Watson on February 29, 2008 in Injuries. 27 Comments

There was a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories among fans regarding why Amir Johnson didn’t get into Wednesday’s game against the Jazz, but A. Sherrod Blakely cleared the air today:

And maybe most important to Joe Dumars, [Theo Ratliff] won’t take minutes away from Jason Maxiell or Amir Johnson, who had a serious head cold the other night before the Utah game when I talked with him. He should be good to go on Saturday against the Clippers.

I’m a little surprised it took so long for the explanation to come out, but then again, it’s possible none of the beat writers thought it was that odd to begin with. Even when Maxiell was being worked into the rotation last year, he’d often have a random DNP-CD tossed in there for no known reason. And while Johnson has played well of late (A.S.B. penned a longer article about his emergence yesterday), he’s hardly a permanent fixture just yet.

Cheikh Samb’s teeth are fine

Published by Matt Watson on December 28, 2007 in Injuries. 4 Comments

At least, that’s what I gather after reading this from Krista Jahnke in the Freep:

Rookie center Cheikh Samb, who had dental work last week to repair two knocked-out teeth, went through full contact at Thursday’s practice. He likely will be reassigned to the NBA Development League.

Still no word on the status of his jaw, which was originally thought to be slightly fractured when Samb took the hit that dislodged his two incisors.

Jarvis Hayes has food poisoning

Published by Matt Watson on December 27, 2007 in Injuries. 7 Comments

From Chris McCosky’s blog:

Jarvis Hayes was sent home from practice today. He was sick. The Pistons think it was food poisoning. What that could mean, though, is our first look at Walter Herrmann. He hasn’t put on a Pistons game uniform yet, since coming over from Charlotte. With the Pistons playing Indiana back-to-back, the Pistons might let Hayes sit out and rest Friday.

Herrmann didn’t do much for Charlotte before being traded this year, but check out how he finished the 2006-07 season for the Bobcats. He’s kind of been tagged a three-point specialist (he shot 46% from beyond the arc last year) but is a complete player when he’s at his best. If he does in fact see the court, I’ll be very curious to see what he can do.

(Kudos to DBB reader Diablo for the head’s up.)

Rodney Stuckey (finally) cleared for practice

Published by Matt Watson on December 20, 2007 in Injuries. 30 Comments

From Pistons.com:

Stuckey, who wowed NBA personnel folks with a dynamic turn at the Las Vegas Summer League, broke his left hand in the Pistons’ final preseason game on Oct. 24 and was initially expected to miss six weeks. But the multiple fractures to three fingers still hadn’t fully calcified when Stuckey was last X-rayed, two weeks ago at the six-week mark. That last bridge was crossed Thursday.

The Pistons held only a light optional workout Thursday, which means Stuckey’s first significant practice time will come on Saturday with the Pistons between home games Friday against Memphis and Sunday against Houston. Pistons coach Flip Saunders has said he would likely choose to have Stuckey participate in at least a few practices before activating him for games, though it’s possible Stuckey could be in uniform as early as Sunday.

Possible, but maybe not likely. From A. Sherrod Blakely:

But Saunders cautions to not look for him to be in the lineup immediately.

“Once he starts going, it’ll be at least a week or two before he’ll do anything more than that,” Saunders said.

Still, this should get interesting. Flip Murray has been getting DNP-CD’s left and right (six in the last eight games, to be precise). With Stuckey in uniform, will Murray even dress? Lindsey Hunter will have his playing time cut, but he’s worth keeping active because he can come into the game and provide 3-5 minutes of shutdown defense when the Pistons need a few stops. Once upon a time I thought Arron Afflalo would be the odd man out once Stuckey returned, but he seems to have earned a spot in the rotation.

As currently constructed, the Pistons are one of the deepest teams in the league, but with so many small and expiring contracts belonging to relatively disposable players (Murray, Brezec, Herrmann), a little breathing room under the luxury tax (~$1.7 million) plus a couple of trade exceptions (~$2 million, courtesy of the Nazr and Delfino deals), I could easily see Detroit pulling a three-for-one trade to pick up an impact player.

Or, if the Pistons opt to move those guys piecemeal, does anyone see the Warriors wanting Flip Murray? They just lost Troy Hudson to a potentially career-ending hip condition and could use a backup point — if Murray’s shoot-first, gamble-on-defense philosophy would fit in anywhere, it’s Golden State. Not sure who they have that Detroit might want, but they don’t seem high on Patrick O’Bryant — there’s probably a good reason for that, but I’d rather roll the dice on a young seven-footer who might have upside instead of holding onto Murray until he walks as a free agent.

All Samb wants for Christmas is his two front teeth

Published by Matt Watson on December 17, 2007 in Injuries. 18 Comments

This was posted in the comments a couple of days ago (thanks, LanierFan), but I wanted to get it up here for everyone who missed it: although Cheikh Samb looked good in his first two games with the Mad Ants, he won’t be playing again any time soon. From the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel:

Seconds after Mad Ants center Cheikh Samb took an elbow to the mouth Friday night, he walked calmly to the bench.

Then he spit his two front teeth into his hand.

This was not the sort of toughening the Detroit Pistons had in mind when they sent Samb to Fort Wayne to work on his pro basketball skills.

“(It happened) on a play when he got a foul called on him,” Ants coach Kent Davison said. “Go figure.”

Samb’s teeth, which came out at the roots, were immediately placed in a saline-based “tooth saver,” Ants athletic trainer Pam Kutella said. He was taken to a local dentist to have the teeth reset in his mouth. He also suffered a probable upper jawbone fracture, Kutella said.

“At minimum, he’ll be out two weeks to replace the teeth,” she said, emphasizing that she didn’t have an official diagnosis Friday night. “At maximum, if he needs surgery, he’ll probably be out two months.”

Just reading that makes me cringe (and not just because of my hokey title). I’ve yet to hear any updates on Samb’s status, but here’s for hoping surgery wasn’t needed.

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