Brgulker pinpointed a nice tidbit from Part 3 of the Joey D Q&A of JD saying nobody's been in the gym this off-season more than Ben Wallace and Charlie Villanueva. The Detroit News had more on Villanueva staying in Detroit to do his off-season workout regime. Villanueva definitely reads DBB:
"I want to change my whole body," said Villanueva, who wants to get stronger and quicker.
Listen, I get it that CV is paid a lot of money and he didn't perform to par in his first year in Detroit. However, it's complete and utter BS that he's the most hated athlete in Detroit, according to the poll at Piston Powered. Not only is he the most hated, he's hated by more than twice the total of the next hated athlete: Gerald 'can't crack Mendoza' Laird. There haven't been a lot of votes (roughly 400), but that's still absurd. There are three other names on that list who are much more deserving of the 'hate' and none of them are Pistons. It is a Pistons site, so I'm hoping most of his votes are from solely Pistons fans picking between the two names they recognize the most. Somehow, though, I highly doubt that and that reflects poorly on the voters.
I FanShot'd yesterday that PS&E was suing Olympia Entertainment, claiming they stole confidential data. Well, Tom Wilson was not named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit names nine employees who followed Wilson to Olympia Entertainment:
The suit says the nine took confidential customer databases including e-mails of ticket buyers, and that one of the former employees tried to hack into a Palace Sports & Entertainment database from his Olympia computer.
I'm going to aggregate all the Mock Drafts at some point like I did last year, but here's a sneak preview. Brian Levinson of CBSSports.com thinks the Pistons will take Cole Aldrich. AOL FanHouse's Jordan Schultz feels the same way. Davis Del Grande of CBS Sports thinks Demarcus Cousins will fall to the Pistons at the No. 7 spot. Jonathan Feigen (also CBS Sports) and Draft Express say Al-Farouq Aminu. NBADraft.net mocks Greg Monroe. What have we learned? Nothing really.
Joe Dumars said this week that the realistic head count of players under consideration for the Pistons’ pick at No. 7 was six. If you start with the premise that John Wall, Evan Turner, Derrick Favors and DeMarcus Cousins will be out of play, then who makes up that group of a half-dozen that Joe D and his staff are analyzing, comparing and investigating with the draft clock at two weeks and ticking?
My best educated guess: Greg Monroe, Al-Farouq Aminu, Ekpe Udoh, Ed Davis, Wesley Johnson and Cole Aldrich. I’m throwing two more names onto the pile, though – Xavier Henry and Cousins. Still think it’s a long shot that Cousins slips through to No. 7, but there is enough buzz out there to make it a consideration. Also think it’s pretty unlikely Henry is the choice, but he’s intriguing enough as a shooter of unusual ability to warrant expanding the list on the chance that somebody else – Aldrich? Johnson? Davis? – isn’t really being considered at all.
The Izzo update stream on SB Nation Detroit is on fire and full of borderline creepy stalking. If you're an interested Spartans fan, curious he'll be our new enemy next season, or both, make sure you follow along.
Avery Johnson is taking his clipboard and booming voice to New Jersey to coach the Nets.
