Tag Archive for 'Theo Ratliff'

Detroit’s looking at perimeter players

Published by Matt Watson on July 2, 2008 in Rumors. 114 Comments

From A. Sherrod Blakely:

The Pistons are expected to spend the early part of free agency focused on landing one of the following players: James Jones of Portland; C.J. Miles of Utah or Mickael Pietrus of Golden State.

Also, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald suggests the Pistons are interested in poaching James Posey from the Celtics:

A league source said yesterday the valuable swingman’s dance card will be top-heavy with contenders that appreciate more than ever the intangible ways Posey can contributes to a championship team. Posey now lists two NBA titles on his resume, after helping the Celtics to a championship last month and the Miami Heat to the 2006 crown.

Posey’s hometown Cleveland Cavaliers are said to be putting together an offer, in addition to the Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets.

Personally, I’d take Posey over Jones, Miles or Pietrus any day of the week (annoying mouth guard and all) — he’s a gnat on defense and has always seemed to hit a three-pointer against the Pistons at the worst possible moment. Considering he’s also seeking the full mid-level exception over 4-5 years, though, I don’t think the Pistons will be in this race for long, especially when you consider he’s already 31 years old.

The other three guys should be had for much cheaper. Just for context, Pietrus had a better season in 2006-07 than he did this past year, but even then he wasn’t able to garner a single offer as a restricted free agent than Golden State’s $3.5 million qualifying offer.

Granted, part of that is because teams have become reluctant to negotiate with restricted free agents in recent years, but that’s probably not too far from his market value. (Jones, meanwhile, made $2.9 million last year. Miles, who was drafted out of high school and is still just 21 years old, made less than $800K, but that’s because he was still working on his rookie contract.)

Also, ASB had this on Tuesday:

On the home front, the Pistons expect Lindsey Hunter to return next season, but it’ll likely be in an even more diminished role than the one he had this season.

Detroit is in the market for a No. 3 point guard — possibly a player who emerges from a summer league team in Las Vegas — who would play ahead of Hunter.

The Pistons also are expected to bring Theo Ratliff back next season.

Walter Hermmann is another possibility, but he’s expected to have more lucrative offers from overseas teams. And when you combine that with the fact that he may very well have another season with a limited role, he may decide to play elsewhere.

Hunter played just 24 games last year — what does an even more diminished role look like — 15 games? 10? If that’s really what’s in store, why bother? Why not save that spot for a rotating D-League flavor of the week?

I’m on board with the Ratliff decision so long as it’s a one-year deal. (That seems obvious, right? Don’t forget, we all assumed that’s all Hunter would get back in the summer of 2006 before Dumars surprised us by giving him two.) I don’t want to see Ratliff take a single minute away from Jason Maxiell or Amir Johnson, but this team need a backup center and he’s not (completely) running on fumes.

As for Herrmann, I’d be shocked if he’s back. Even if the Pistons really wanted to keep him (and if they did, they wouldn’t be going after guys like Posey, Pietrus and Jones), there’s simply better money to be had in Europe, especially when you consider that Euro contracts are net (not gross), include additional housing stipends and require players to play fewer games. Oh yeah, and he’d probably be a star over there but only a little-used reserve over here. It’s been nice, Fabio; be sure to send a postcard.

Be Like Theo!

Published by Matt Watson on May 21, 2008 in Alley-Oops. 0 Comments

Pop quiz: After last week’s Game 5 win over the Magic, I talked to Theo Ratliff about a) how the Pistons were able to contain Dwight Howard; b) the challenges posed by the Cavs and the Celtcs; or c) his signature sports drink line. You know me, focusing on the important stuff.

Pistons go up 2-0 on Magic

Published by Matt Watson on May 6, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, Games, Magic and Shameless Plugging. 60 Comments

I have all sorts of stuff from last night’s game going up at FanHouse this morning. Before the game, Rashard Lewis told me that the brewing war of the words between he and Theo Ratliff was over and done with:

“I’m a basketball player, I go out there to play basketball and not to trash talk. It was just something that he said and I responded to it. It wasn’t nothing personal, it was just me being a man and responding to what he said. But at the same time, I’m not that type of player. I go out there to play basketball and try to win for my team and let the trash talk stay on their side.”

After the game, Ratliff told me that Dwight Howard isn’t on the same level as David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon … yet:

“He’s a phenomenal talent — his athleticism, his size, but he’s still young. He’s going to continue to get better and continue to get better and he’ll probably be at the status of those guys later on in his career.”

Jason Maxiell explained why he’s so freaking active on the court:

MW: At the end of the last series, Thaddeus Young had a pretty entertaining quote about you. … He said, Maxiell is crazy, he’s crazy crazy. What do you think about that, that’s a sign of respect, wouldn’t you say?

JM: Yeah, to a certain degree. I guess with my size, I got to keep moving, going for offensive boards. They don’t run plays for me, so the way for myself to score is to get to the board.

And, of course, the clock thing. The Pistons obviously got a gift, but the Magic refused to blame that one play for their loss:

“They didn’t start the clock and he made the shot, but I didn’t think that determined the game,” said Rashard Lewis. “We were still in the game, we were down two points at the time. We still had another full quarter to go, we were still in the game, but I think we made a lot of little mistakes that made us lose that game.”

You can’t get too upset about an iffy call when you go out and finish the game shooting 25% and committing five turnovers over the last 12 minutes. That whistle on Keyon Dooling for “pushing” Rip Hamilton before the in-bounds pass? That was bad, too, but the Pistons were already up three with the ball so it’s hard to say that was a game-changer, as well. I will admit those types of things add up over time, though. I’m willing to chalk some of it up to the refs being partly influenced by a LOUD crowd at the Palace.

Orlando gets chippy (and chirpy)

Published by Matt Watson on May 5, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Magic. 4 Comments

From my FanHouse post on Saturday’s game:

Things almost boiled over in the fourth when Rashard Lewis wrapped up Theo Ratliff under Detroit’s basket. Ratliff shook off the contact, but Lewis drew a technical, as well as an earful from Maxiell. “I wanted to make sure my teammate’s okay,” he said after the game. “We’re all family here, so I let it be known [if they] try to get physical, it’s not going to be that easy for them and we’re going to fire it back at them.”

When asked if the rough play affected the Pistons, Maxiell laughed. “Oh no, not at all,” he said. “We’re a rough team ourselves. We’re going to do the roughing.”

As Theo Ratliff explained later, though, he didn’t really need Maxiell’s help. From A. Sherrod Blakely:

“I told him (Maxiell) to calm down,” Ratliff said. “There’s no sense in guys coming to my rescue. I mean, that was Rashard Lewis. He tried to foul me hard, but he’s a three-man (small forward). It was no big deal.”

Shard isn’t known to be the most physical player in the league, but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have pride, and he didn’t appreciate hearing from someone on Detroit’s bench:

Ratliff’s comments made their way back to Lewis, who was visibly upset.

“You can have a lot of energy in five minutes a game,” said Lewis, referring to Ratliff’s limited role. “What’s he played? 15 games. Tell him to come out and guard me.”

But that’s the thing: the Pistons know they have a lot of energy playing five minutes at a time. As Flip Saunders explained during Saturday’s post-game press conference, it’s literally part of their strategy.

“[The] big thing is we try to send a lot of bodies at him. And we wanted to keep a fresh body on him all the time,” said Saunders. “I took Maxey out, I think five minutes, six minutes into the game. Some of the guys on the bench are saying, ‘Why take him out?’ I said because I want to keep somebody fresh on him, and our guys have to know that they don’t have to play 10 minutes, they can play six minutes and they can go as hard as they can, and hopefully what it’ll do is when you get in the third and fourth quarter, it’ll wear him down.”

And as Krista Jahnke explains, that’s just what the Pistons did on Saturday:

Maxiell worked the first five and a half minutes on Howard before Saunders subbed him out. Then Rasheed Wallace took over manning up Howard. Later, Antonio McDyess switched onto him, and for 12 minutes Ratliff helped out, too. When Howard put the ball on the floor, the Pistons would occasionally send help, but they battled him for the most part one-on-one.

“We’ve got so many guys running in there 6-10, big guys stepping in there after them,” Ratliff said. “They really can’t match up with us.”

Saunders open to deep playoff rotation

Published by Matt Watson on April 4, 2008 in From the news. 22 Comments

For most of the year, we’ve been led to believe the rotation will inevitably get shorter in the playoffs. After all, that’s what conventional basketball wisdom says teams are supposed to do. A little bit ago, I argued that perhaps the Pistons ought to ignore that school of thought since their ability to bring a steady stream of rested players off the bench might be what’s kept the opposition on their heels for most of the year.

Now, with the playoffs on the horizon, it seems Flip Saunders is starting to come around. Here’s some comments from a recent radio interview (via Full-Court Press):

“If we continue to play the way we’re playing, maybe we do extend our bench the way it is right now and the way we’ve gone most of the season,” coach Flip Saunders said on The Stoney and Wojo Show on WDFN-AM Detroit.

While Saunders declined to name which players would be included in that rotation, he did say that Theo Ratliff would be amongst them as a situational defensive substitute.

The depth of the Pistons bench led Saunders to conclude that this year’s Pistons team is the best he’s coached.

“There’s probably five or six games we could have won this year if we hadn’t played as many young players, but I think it’s paying dividends for us right now,” he said. “I think because of the way the bench is and the depth that we have that this is probably our best team.”

Saunders specifically praised the play of reserves Amir Johnson and Walter Herrmann, who he called the second- and third-best players in Tuesday’s comeback win over Minnesota.

For fans of Herrmann, it seems we should see a lot more of him down the stretch. From Chris McCosky’s blog:

Back to the business at hand, if you guys were chomping at the bit to see more of Cheikh Samb, back off. It’s not happening. Here’s Flip Saunders after practice today:

“We’ll play him some, but it’s not like we say we’re going to play Cheikh a lot of minutes because I still want to play Amir a lot. I still want to play Maxey and play Walter, too.”

Samb’s an interesting prospect, for sure, but I have no problem whatsoever with this decision. There’s no chance that he’ll even be active for the playoffs, let alone getting any PT, whereas Herrmann has enough experience under his belt to think that he could step up in a pinch should the right matchup arise. Not saying it’s going to happen, but I don’t think it’d surprise anyone if it did.

Theo Ratliff may stay awhile

Published by Matt Watson on March 10, 2008 in From the news. 44 Comments

From Chris McCosky in the Detroit News:

Even though the Pistons’ contractual commitment to Theo Ratliff ends after this season, the door is wide open for him to come back next season.

“It’s pretty much up in the air right now,” said Ratliff, who started his second straight game for the Pistons on Sunday. He finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes.

Ratliff’s plan was to retire after this, his 13th NBA season. But both he and Pistons president Joe Dumars have talked about him coming back next season as the Pistons’ fifth big man.

“It’s going to come down to family and how I feel,” said Ratliff, who will be 35 in April. “I have six kids, and they are growing up fast.”

Ratliff’s children range in age from 12 to 1. Presently, they are in Boston, but the family base is in Atlanta.

“We’ll talk after the season and see how everything works out,” he said.

I hear a lot of jokes about Theo’s age (in general, not just here), but you guys realize he was drafted the same year as Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace, right? If Ratliff wants to stay, don’t discount the Arnie Kander Effect in keeping him productive.

Ratliff considers one more season / Detroit News

Theo Ratliff is signed and delivered

Published by Matt Watson on March 5, 2008 in Shameless Plugging and Transactions. 4 Comments

Theo Ratliff was at the Palace last night, meeting some new teammates, reuniting with others and talking to the press while wearing a Pistons (practice) jersey for the first time in almost 10 years. From my latest on HOOPSWORLD:

It’s been several years since Ratliff has been a part of a contender, and he’s spent much of that time on teams devoted to developing younger players whom he’s helped mentor. “I think I had a great influence on those guys … [But] now’s the time for me to get my satisfaction,” he said while laughing. “My satisfaction of being able to become a Piston again, with the team they have and the record that they have and where they’re going. I feel like I can add a lot as far as coming off the bench and being able to be a big spark, just fitting right in with the defensive mentality that these guys have. And that’s why I’m so excited about being a part of this organization.”

Ratliff was also effusive in his praise for Arnie Kander (”He’s a miracle worker, so I’m going to let him lay his hands on me …”) and expects to be healthy enough to contribute the rest of the way. Flip Saunders agrees and said Ratliff will likely compete for more minutes than Dale Davis would have been expected to, especially come the postseason:

“I think we’re committed to staying with the rotation that we have and see where that takes us,” said Saunders. “But I think what we do have is we do have other players that, if things aren’t working, maybe you have a little bit of a shorter leash … If our bench gives us in the playoffs what they’re giving us right now, we’re going to play them. Our hope is that they’re going to be able to continue to do that.”

Ratliff Returns to Detroit / HOOPSWORLD

Pistons will get Theo Ratliff, not Dale Davis

Published by Matt Watson on February 29, 2008 in Around the Internets. 30 Comments

From Chris McCosky’s blog:

The Minnesota Timberwolves Thursday night placed veteran center Theo Ratliff on waivers and have agreed to buy him out of what remained on his $11.6 million contract. If he clears waivers in the next 48 hours - which is almost a given with his salary - he will sign with the Pistons for the prorated amount of the veteran’s minimum ($1.3 million).

Ratliff, 34, was drafted by the Pistons in 1995. He has only played 12 games the last two years, but he is healthy now. He played in the last 10 games with the Timberwolves, averaging 6.3 points and 3.9 rebounds.

Talk about coming out of left field, huh? No word on what the jilted Dale Davis plans on doing, but presumably he’d be interested in latching on with another contender looking to add a veteran big man for the stretch run.

I always liked Ratliff, though I wonder how much he has left in the tank. Of course, that’s why Arnie Kander makes the big bucks — once Ratliff gets a few gallons of Arnie’s magic water, I’m sure he’ll be jumping out of the gym just like the old days.

It’s also interesting that the Pistons settled for a relative lightweight center instead of a physical bruiser like Davis — with Shaq irrelevant in Phoenix, there’s really not a need to keep a designated wide body around. That said, I can’t think of a better mentor to help Amir Johnson harness his incredible shot-blocking ability without getting called for a foul every other trip down the court.

(Thanks to Sonia and Matt G. for the head’s up.)