Apologies for the lack of posting -- real world stuff occasionally has to take precedence. What's the easy way to catch up? Bullet points!
- The picture above is from the DBB Suite Night on Friday. It's always fun to put faces to some of the familiar names that appear in the comments, and on Friday I was fortunate to meet Fadel, TW, Tiny and Stuck. Plus, it was the first time in a couple of seasons that I attended a game with DBB's former (and future?) co-pilot, Ian. You can check out more pictures here, including our visit from the 1990 Larry O'Brien.
On behalf of everyone who attended, I'd like to thank the Pistons for making this happen, especially Dave Wieme for playing the role of tour guide.
- So yeah ... Michael Curry and Tayshaun Prince had a little back-and-forth after Sunday's loss. Many of you have already discussed and digested it in the comments, but my take is up at FanHouse:
While the entire team has been forced to adjust to Allen Iverson's arrival, perhaps no one has been asked to change his game as much as Prince. It's clear that Curry doesn't trust Iverson to run the offense, and to compensate he's frequently relied on a three-guard lineup, which bumps Prince to the four, or a traditional two-guard lineup with Prince running the show as a point forward.
Either way, Prince is playing out of position. While he may be averaging a career-high with 15.3 points and 6.5 rebounds, those numbers are skewed by a handful of games early on. In his last seven games, he's averaged just 11.1 points and 3.7 boards, and even though he's played a lot at the one, he's tallied more than three assists in a game just three times all year.
If Curry is serious about wanting Tay to be an All-Star, he's got to at least put him in a position to succeed. My solution? I'm officially a member of the "AI for Sixth Man of the Year!" club. Read the whole post for my rationale.
- Update: MLive.com's Pardeep Toor advocates a change to the starting lineup, as well -- but he wants to put Rip or Tay on the bench.
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Curry is dedicated to developing the bench:
"Young guys haven't played," he said. "At the end of the year, guys are tired. Y'all tell me all the excuses -- I've read all of them over the years. We're going to play our young guys. If our young guys are playing well, they're going to stay in the game. They deserve it, they've earned it, and that's what we're going to do."
- Amir Johnson needs to keep doing this.
- It was less than a year ago that Detroit was being mentioned as a possible destination for Stephon Marbury. Now that Marbury is negotiating a buyout, be thankful that Flip Saunders, his lone connection to the D, is gone.