Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' Category

The NBA Summer League Drinking Game

Published by Mike Payne on July 14, 2008 in Guest Writer, Miscellaneous and Summer League. 5 Comments

las vegas strip

(image courtesy: pbo31)

It was a lazy Sunday evening. The Pistons NBA Summer League squad was preparing to face off with the LA Clippers. The Clippers were missing their draft pick, Eric Gordon, and I was missing something as well– a good beer to crack while the game tipped off. I grabbed the last Bell’s Oberon that was waiting for me in the fridge and had barely popped the cap when Cheikh Samb lost the first possession from the tip.

Half way through that Bell’s Oberon, half way through the first quarter, your friendly DBB guest blogger had an idea. The NBA Summer League Drinking Game. Here it is, at it’s most simple: with every possession that ends with a foul — you drink. If you’ve watched any Summer League games yet, you just threw up in your mouth a little… Its okay, it’ll put hair on your chest.

In last night’s game between the Pistons and the Clippers, there were a total of 57 fouls and 55 free throw attempts. While the box score may not provide enough data to determine the number of possession ending fouls, we’re willing to put that number in the upper 30s, low 40s. The important factor about this number of drinks per game is the volume per drink. We’re not talking car bombs, Jager bombs or sake bombs, we’re talking liberal sips of beer/wine/cocktails. If a possession ends in a foul, you take a healthy sip from your drink.

Beyond the basics, the possibilities are endless. On an “And One”, everyone in the room passes their drink to the left. In more germaphobic households, they drink twice. If you prefer to drink lightly, drink on possessions that end withOUT fouls (or baskets as well, for the lightweights). For some real fun, put an empty glass in the middle of the table and have everyone pour a sip of beer in whenever the announcer says “upside”, “potential”, or “expectations”. At the beginning of the game, each drinker must select the player they think will lead the team that game. He/She who chooses correctly decides who drinks the nasty “upside” glass at the end of the game…

After all, its summer time. As the song goes, the living is easy right now. For us die-hard, wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-in-a-cold-sweat NBA fans, this is the most excitement we’ll have until the tip-off of pre-season play (barring any blockbuster trades, of course). So take it in stride, take it easy, and make the most of the NBA Summer League with friends, fanatics, and plenty of booze… Salut!

As McDyess goes, so go the Pistons

Published by Matt Watson on April 25, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Miscellaneous. 7 Comments

In today’s Free Press, Krista Jahnke notes how Antonio McDyess is prone to letting his success or failure snowball over the course of a game:

“He needs to hit early shots to get into a rhythm,” coach Flip Saunders said.

Tayshaun Prince said teammates engage in armchair psychology with McDyess during games, encouraging him to keep shooting if he misses early. Otherwise, they know he can fade.

“When he misses two or three shots in a row and nobody says anything to him to keep shooting, then he tends to veer away from that,” Prince said. “If he makes or misses his first shot, we constantly stay on him to keep shooting the basketball. Then he’ll keep shooting.”

As it happens, McDyess was a hot topic in the comments of the last game thread, which isn’t surprising considering McDyess bounced back from a six-point, six-board game to score 16 points with 12 boards. DBB reader joejoejoe looked up the numbers and found an interesting correlation between McDyess’ performance and the team’s success:

The Pistons are 24-14 when McDyess shoots less than 50% from the field.
The Pistons are 13-6 when McDyess shoots from 50-59% from the field.
The Pistons are 20-1 when McDyess shoots 60% or more from the field.

The Pistons are 29-15 when McDyess scores fewer than 10 points.
The Pistons are 28-6 when McDyess scores 10 points or more.

It’s not that McDyess is scoring a ton of points. He scored more than 15 points only 5 times this year. I just think that when McDyess is clicking then it opens up the game for his team as a secondary option.

I agree with his conclusion. McDyess isn’t a prototypical power forward who rarely strays from the paint. Instead, his preferred shot is a 12-15 foot jumper where he’s usually automatic … right? You might be surprised — take a look at his NBA Hot Spot chart after the jump. Continue reading ‘As McDyess goes, so go the Pistons’

On Rodney Stuckey and turning corners

Published by Matt Watson on April 9, 2008 in Miscellaneous. 1 Comment

This was mentioned in the comments, but Rodney Stuckey has cracked ESPN’s David Thorpe’s top 10 rookie rankings:

Rodney Stuckey has exploded thus far in April, averaging 20 points per game and 5.3 assists per game in three wins. He has grown into a trusted player in Detroit’s rotation. Rookie guards have the toughest task of all come playoff time, so it will be interesting to see whether he gets playing time then and how he responds if he does. One thing is certain: He’s a very confident player with the ball in his hands.

He’s down to 18 and 4.8 after last night’s game, but he’s obviously turned the corner. In his first 32 games of the season, he shot just 36% from the field. In his last 20, he’s at 47%. He’s simply making better decisions with the ball, whether it’s finding his own shot or finding a teammate.

This is a couple of weeks old, but Thorpe looked at the entire rookie class and suggested an NBA veteran that each youngster would be well-served to emulate. For Stuckey, he came up with Deron Williams:

Stuckey has the size to be an effective player in the paint, and he’s already OK in this area now. Williams, however, is a punisher inside, beating guys up off the dribble before scoring or banging them off flex cuts or pin-downs to gain position near the rim. Stuckey would be a tougher player to match up with if he was inspired to play with the kind of toughness inside that Williams exhibits.

We all know Stuckey can get to the rim — it’s figuring out what to do once he gets there that has been a learning process this year. Looking at Williams’ career stats, it seems he may have gone through a similar transition: his shooting percentage has climbed from 42.1% as a rookie to 45.6% his second year to 50.9% this season.

hat-tip: DBB reader Kyle

What if the Pistons played in the West?

Published by Matt Watson on March 25, 2008 in Guest Writer and Miscellaneous. 28 Comments

If the Pistons played in the West, would they still be an elite contender or just another good team? DBB reader Mike Z. tackled that problem in an interesting email he sent me last week (note: his final numbers don’t include Sunday or Monday’s games), using Detroit’s actual winning percentage against Western Conference teams to calculate a hypothetical “adjusted” winning percentage for the season, based upon the fact that NBA teams play 52 regular-season games within their own conference and 30 games with the other conference. In any case, here’s what he came up with:

A lot of people, in fact most, probably say that the Pistons would not have had as good a record over the last 6 years (The 5 ECF Finals plus this year) if they had been playing in the Western Conference rather than the Eastern Conference.

So I went to Yahoo Sports NBA standings and did some analysis of what the Pistons record has been from 2002-03 through today vs what it would have been if they had played in the Western Conference.

I did this by computing the winning percentages that the Pistons have had against each conference over the 6 year period through today by year and in total for the 6 years. I projected this year’s winning percentages to 82 games. I then took the total Pistons wins by year by conference over the 6 year period and added up the wins and losses by year to come up with a 6 year winning percentage by conference along with a total 6 year won and loss record.

I then reversed the 52-30 arrangement and gave the Pistons a 30-52 (East/West) and applied the actual winning percentages by conference for each of the 6 years to come up with an adjusted winning percentage and wins and losses by conference and in total for each of the 6 years based upon the 30-52. I then added up the adjusted wins and losses by year for the each of the conferences and in total and came up with an adjusted won/loss percentage in total for the 6 years.

The actual won loss percentage for the Pistons over the 6 years has been .678, which has resulted in 333 wins over 482 games. The adjusted numbers over the 6 years projected though the end of this year are .665 and 327 wins. This amounts to only 6 less wins over the 6 years, or 1 less win a year.

Of course depending on which team was exchanged for the Pistons (i.e. moved to the East) it is possible that the Pistons may have actually had a better record over the last 6 years by playing in the Western Conference. Who would have thought it?

If you want to check his math, this is the data he used:

2007-08 Total to Date 49-19 vs East 30-11 vs West 19-8
2006-07 Total 53-29; vs East 36-16; vs West 17-13
2005-06 Total 64-18; vs East 39-13; vs West 25-5
2004-05 Total 54-28; vs East 35-17; vs West 19-11
2003-04 Total 54-28; vs East 37-17; vs West 17-11
2002-03 Total 50-32; vs East 35-19; vs West 15-13

Total 2002-08 is 324-154 = .678 (Projected based upon 82 games this year)

vs East 212-93 = .695
vs West 112-61 = .647

If the Pistons played in the West, the adjusted winning percentage since 2002-03 (based upon 30-52 rather than 52-30 East/West games) would have been .665, rather than what it has been at .678

There are 492 games over a 6 year period

Actual winning percentage of .678 = 333-159
Adjusted winning percentage of .665 = 327-165

I can see a lot of ways to poke holes in this hypothetical argument (for instance, would the wear and tear of facing Western teams 52 times a year result in a reduced winning percentage?), but it’s certainly a different (and surprising) way of looking at things. Just like the Pistons don’t take sub-.500 teams quite as lightly as anecdotal evidence suggests, they also fare better against the superior conference than one might guess.

Update: Now that we know the winning percentage, what about the playing seed? Mike ran the numbers again and provided this quick and dirty table:

Actual seed in East; Projected seed in West
2007-08 2nd; 1st
2006-07 1st; 6th
2005-06 1st; 1st
2004-05 2nd; 4th
2003-04 2nd; 5th
2002-03 1st; 7th

This is just a quick estimation based upon the previous numbers — as Mike pointed out, obviously the seeds could (and likely would) be different had Detroit played in the West since all the other teams would have slightly different records, as well.

Are the Pistons really playing fewer minutes?

Published by Matt Watson on March 18, 2008 in Miscellaneous. 19 Comments

I received an interesting email from DBB reader Fadel:

I’m always hearing people (and even the Pistons themselves) saying how much rest the starters are getting because the bench is playing more. But is this actually true and does this really matter? I made a spreadsheet comparing the minutes the starters played in 2006-2007 and this year (2007-2008).

Last year everyone says fatigue was the reason why the Pistons struggled in the playoffs. However, even though the starters (except McDyess) are averaging fewer minutes per game, they will have logged more minutes at the end of the season. The only real difference shows with Tayshaun Prince, who will have played about 227 fewer minutes than last year.

Take a look at the numbers. I think this is interesting. (Note: I assumed each starter will finish the remainder of the season logging their current average minutes per game).

2007-08 Minutes

The reason for the discrepancy is so simple I hesitate to point it out: the starters are missing fewer games this year. Chauncey Billups missed 12 games last year while Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace each missed seven. So far this year, none of the starters have missed more than four. I’d expect the average minutes played to dip slightly between here and the end of the season (if for no other reason than to make up for the last few games where the starters traditionally sit out for most of the game), but perhaps not enough to make up for the difference.

Is Fadel onto something? Is all of this talk about fewer minutes just hype that won’t have any real affect come playoff time? I honestly don’t know. But I have a hunch that reducing the minutes per game is more beneficial than simply reducing the overall minutes, at least to the degree that we’re looking at.

Why? Think of it like this: if you work a 40-hour work week by tallying eight hours a day for five days, you’ll be frazzled come Friday evening but hardly asleep on your feet. But if you spend the first three days wasting time and then close out week with two 20-hour work days, you’ll be a zombie by the weekend. Obviously I’m exaggerating to make a point, but I think there’s something to that.

Also, let’s not assume that all minutes are created equal. The Pistons are undeniably more efficient as a team this year (there are lots of ways to measure this, but I’m going to use 82games.com’s quick and easy “points per 100 possessions” — last year the Pistons averaged 109 on offense and gave up 103 on defense; this year, it’s 112 and 103, respectively), which suggests there’s a diminishing return to playing longer minutes per game. Billups has explained it by saying he feels fresher in late-game situations this year because he’s able to sit for longer periods of time early, which makes sense.

If this is the case, the cumulative number of minutes may not be quite as important as the ability to get rest in the middle of a game … which means perhaps the Pistons ought not follow the conventional “shorten the rotation for the playoffs” school of thought. Maybe it’s the fact Detroit can go 10, 11, 12 deep on any given night that keeps the starters so fresh and the opposition on their heels. It’s something to think about.

Let’s face it, the Pistons are in an unusual situation where guys that can’t even dress would probably crack the eight-man rotation of just about any other team in the league — and it’s not just me saying it. Here’s Byron Scott …

“[Jarvis Hayes] had 29 points, that was a real big surprise. He had a season high at halftime – a guy we didn’t mention a whole lot,” said Byron Scott. “We did talk about their bench as being a very good basketball team and that we had to come out and do a better job when their starters went out because we don’t feel they have much of a let down.

… and here’s Gregg Poppovich:

“To me, their bench is the most impressive in the league,” Popovich said. “Those guys take pride in what they do when they step on the court. They’re very physical, very energetic.”

And that’s just me grabbing quotes from their last two opposing coaches — were I to look for more, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find. Playing the starters for fewer minutes not only reduces the load over the course of an entire season but also provides more opportunities within an individual game for a highly energized and motivated reserve to come in and make a huge impact. (This isn’t news: it’s what was behind the mini fan-uproar when Flip Saunders didn’t play Amir Johnson in Utah.) Jarvis and Maxiell had this impact on Sunday, Amir has done it in the past, and Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo have done it on occasion. Heck, providing short bursts of defensive energy in the playoffs is the only thing Lindsey Hunter is expected to contribute this year.

So does the fact that the starting lineup will actually play more minutes this season than last bother me? Not necessarily. Maybe I’ll change my mind if the starters routinely log 40+ minutes a night in the playoffs, but if they can stick with something that resembles the current formula, fatigue shouldn’t be a factor.

Best advice I’ve read all week

Published by Matt Watson on March 7, 2008 in Miscellaneous. 2 Comments

PDXPistonsFan said:

I start to let this game affect me, then I look at the standings and I take a deep breath and I relax. We’re going to be fine. Sleep well, eat your vegetables, and remember to set your clocks ahead on Saturday. The Pistons will make us proud.

On giving minutes to those who earn them

Published by Matt Watson on December 5, 2007 in Guest Writer and Miscellaneous. 19 Comments

by Kevin Sawyer

Since he has joined Detroit, Flip Saunders has garnered criticism for not playing the young guys, or not playing the right guys, or overplaying the right guys. I decided to peek at the numbers, and see how true this really is by comparing minutes per game with play efficiency ratings. Here is how that breaks down.

Hamilton – (PER 16.9, MPG 34.1)
Billups – (PER 23.0, MPG 33.4)
Prince – (PER 18.7, MPG 34.5)
Rasheed – (PER 19.6, MPG 31.6)
McDyess – (PER 17.7, MPG 29.3)
Maxiell – (PER 18.6, MPG 23.1)
Murray – (PER 15.3, MPG 19.4)
Hayes – (PER 14.9, MPG 19.2)
Mohammed – (PER 13.5, MPG 12.1)
Afflalo – (PER 8.8, MPG 12.3)
Johnson – (PER 16.4, MPG 9.4)

Clearly, whatever deficiencies Flip may have had in this area, he has overcome them. I would argue that we are lucky to have a coach who is willing to throw minutes at the players who have earned them. Let’s look at some examples where this has not been the case.

Nets – Sean Williams

Not sure what the Nets are waiting for here. Williams averages a block every ten minutes and grabbed 22 points in his first shot at starting. The man they presently have starting is LITERALLY THE WORST PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE. Jason Collins presently sports a negative PER, and is shooting 10% from the free throw line. That is hard to do.

Knicks - Renaldo Balkman

Made Isiah look smart with a great rookie season. Isiah makes himself look like an idiot by not playing him.

Bobcats – Jared Dudley

The Primoz Brezec experience sounds like a Charlotte cover band, not a viable starting situation. Dudley proved the living crap out of that truism on Sunday, so the Bobcats had better recognize. Can we call him J-Dud?

76ers- Louis Williams

Just ask any Sixers fan. Not sure benching Andre Miller is the answer, but the days of pretending Willie Green can play should draw to a close now that there is a new sheriff in town.

L.A. Lakers – Trevor Ariza

(In the vain of the South Park Mormon episode)

Orlando wasn’t using one of the most talented players on their roster (dum-dum-dum-dum-dummmm).

The Lakers decided to take advantage in an attempt to get some scoring help for Kobe (smart-smart-smart-smart-smarrrrrt).

The Lakers have played Ariza 12 minutes in six games (dum-dum-dum-dum-dummmm).

Timberwolves – Craig Smith

The second best player on the Timberwolves plays 18 minutes per game guys like Antoine Walker can lead the team to a 15 win season. Yesterday, the restaurant downstairs from my work offered free Wolves-Lakers tickets with the purchase of two appetizers. That speaks for itself.

Grizzlies - Hakim Warrick

Imagine being told you can’t get off the pine because your 25 win team acquired Darko Milicic. Now imagine you happen to be a very talented player. At least Darko is too much of a candy ass to play more than 1,500 minutes per year. Still, Memphis is keeping a weird amount of talent on the bench for some reason.

Justin Verlander throws a no-no

Published by Matt Watson on June 12, 2007 in Around the Internets and Miscellaneous. 6 Comments

Justin Verlander

Wow. It’s not basketball so I’ll let the Tigers guys provide the commentary, but … wow.

Mid-term report card: Grading the Pistons

Published by Matt Watson on January 24, 2007 in Miscellaneous. 4 Comments

The All-Star is still a few weeks away, but the season’s true midpoint is this Friday when the Pistons play their 41st game of the season. Not surprisingly, everyone seems to be taking the time to evaluate the Pistons’ season thus far. Chris McCosky does a player-by-player recap in the Detroit News, while Krista Jahnke hands out mid-season grades in the Free Press.

Read the whole article for Jahnke’s reasoning behind each grade, but these are her marks (bear in mind as you’re reading that you’re grading not just the overall contribution to the team, but how well a player fills his specific role):

Starters

  • Chauncey Billups — B+
  • Rip Hamilton — A-
  • Tayshaun Prince — B
  • Rasheed Wallace — C-
  • Chris Webber — Incomplete

Reserves

  • Lindsey Hunter — A-
  • Antonio McDyess — C
  • Carlos Delfino — B
  • Dale Davis — B
  • Jason Maxiell — B+
  • Flip Murray — D
  • Nazr Mohammed — D+
  • Amir Johnson — Incomplete
  • Ronald Dupree — A
  • Will Blalock — C

Coach

  • Flip Saunders — B

I’m going to put together my own mid-season evaluation this weekend, but I’m interested in your thoughts. Do you agree with these grades? Disagree? Have it out in the comments.

Pistons’ midseason grades [Detroit Free Press]

Nike’s Air Force 1 turns 25

Published by Matt Watson on January 20, 2007 in Miscellaneous. 9 Comments

I was contacted by Nike’s advertising/marketing firm asking if I wanted to show their newest commercial featuring the 25th anniversary edition of the Air Force 1. I’m usually not one for gratuitous product placement (especially when it’s unpaid), but I liked the spot — it features nine of today’s biggest stars, plus Tony Parker.

Look for Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire, Jermaine O’Neal, Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, LeBron James and … oh, I know I’m forgetting someone … Rasheed Wallace. The music is by Justin Blaze and Juelz Santana, “two of the hottest talents in hip-hop,” though I’ll have to take Nike’s word on that.

For those too young to remember the first edition of Air Force 1’s, the ad pays homage to the original campaign, featuring Moses Malone, Bobby Jones, Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes and Calvin Natt (picture courtesy Sneaker Freaker):

Air Force 1: The Original Six

Just to tie this all together, Rasheed Wallace attended MTV’s recent Air Force 1 anniversary party, and Need4Sheed has the video of him being interviewed.

Update: Here’s the behind-the-scenes making of the commercial.

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