Mo Cheeks is eyeing a high tempo Pistons Squad?

[zeebneeb]

With our previous team, that was a playoff/title team, they were BUILT to grind you into powder in the half-court set. They had shooters, plain and simple. This team right now is a running team, filled with athletes of the highest order.

Add some more shooting, and we could play both ways, wich is deadly.

RUN RUN RUN for right now though. The fewer half-court sets the better.

Agreed, but if our bigs are running shouldn't we add some depth up front for fatigue purposes as well as silly fouls that happen when teams play the lanes on defense?

I'm going to get bashed for this but if we start CV instead of Monroe I think it helps our offense whether we're running or slowing the pace and if the coach wants our guys to be reaching for balls on defense that might actually encourage CV to do more than stand around on that end. He brings a different skill-set that would certainly help spread the offense while let's be honest, is he really much worse than Monroe on D? This would also enable us to bring in Moose without missing a beat in the paint, it's the same reason guys like Ginobili have typically come off the bench, their skill-set doesn't complement or usually clashes with the starters when they need the ball to be effective. I'm not suggesting Monroe getting less minutes or anything, he would likely still play 18-20 at center and 12-16 at PF keeping him between 30-35 per game. Our frontcourt depth improves greatly without hurting and probably even helping our starting unit and how much better will guys like Stuckey, KCP and Datome be off the bench with a guy like Monroe to draw attention away from them?

Drummond/Monroe/Kravtsov
Villanueva/Monroe/Jerebko/Mitchell
Smith/Datome/Middleton/Singler
Knight/KCP/Stuckey
Billups/Knight/Bynum

Let the bashing begin....

Heres the problem, as much as you have complained about Monroes defense, and rightfully so, it would be even worse with CV because he is a bad rebounder, and cannot box-out for crap. That's one thing on the defensive end Monroe does really well. Drummond doesn't understand boxing-out yet either, and relies on sheer athletisism to get his rebounds. Same for Smith. Monroe has the size, and strength to switch with Drummond on bigger players, CV does not.

Besides that, it may create a locker room problem starting a player who clearly doesn't deserve to(Its about the fact that CV is just a bad teammate. takes bad shots, lazy as hell on defense e.t.c.)and the last thing I want on a team with new coaches, and young players is any sort of drama.

I do see what your going for, but if that's the case, I would rather start Monroe/Smith/Datome then CV.

Its a quandary that's for sure. Plus you lose Mooses passing abilities wich on this team, is big.

[Blkbrd671]

i love that he expanded on his presser comments about knight and how he's not just a combo guard. The same comments in which knight haters took as "he doesn't even think Knights a pg". i also agree with him that you can't put knight in a box and define him as a 1 position player, when his skill set allows him to play multiple positions. For some reason, some posters here think that's a bad thing and want their "true pg"

[DetroitSho]

With our previous team, that was a playoff/title team, they were BUILT to grind you into powder in the half-court set. They had shooters, plain and simple. This team right now is a running team, filled with athletes of the highest order.

Add some more shooting, and we could play both ways, wich is deadly.

RUN RUN RUN for right now though. The fewer half-court sets the better.

The championship team didn't have an over abundance of shooters. No more than what's on this current team.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Blkbrd671]

We can get out and run, but if we intend on contending we need to learn how to play in the half court. The playoffs are a half court game

[zeebneeb]

With our previous team, that was a playoff/title team, they were BUILT to grind you into powder in the half-court set. They had shooters, plain and simple. This team right now is a running team, filled with athletes of the highest order.

Add some more shooting, and we could play both ways, wich is deadly.

RUN RUN RUN for right now though. The fewer half-court sets the better.

The championship team didn't have an over abundance of shooters. No more than what's on this current team.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

Not even close. RIP, Billups, and Prince. James and Hunter off the bench.

Just not even close.

[need4detroit]

With our previous team, that was a playoff/title team, they were BUILT to grind you into powder in the half-court set. They had shooters, plain and simple. This team right now is a running team, filled with athletes of the highest order.

Add some more shooting, and we could play both ways, wich is deadly.

RUN RUN RUN for right now though. The fewer half-court sets the better.

The championship team didn't have an over abundance of shooters. No more than what's on this current team.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

Not even close. RIP, Billups, and Prince. James and Hunter off the bench.

Just not even close.

Mehmet Okur, Rasheed Wallace...

[zeebneeb]

The championship team didn't have an over abundance of shooters. No more than what's on this current team.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

Not even close. RIP, Billups, and Prince. James and Hunter off the bench.

Just not even close.

Mehmet Okur, Rasheed Wallace...

Forgetfull mind is forgetfull. Its not even in the same ballpark.

[Uncle Mxy]

It's easy to forget that Memo could shoot the rock, especially with the way Larry Brown treated him when he did so.

[pistontr]

high tempo with monroe-drummond and smith? himmmm

[pistontr]

fire mo cheeks

[Redeemed]

i love that he expanded on his presser comments about knight and how he's not just a combo guard. The same comments in which knight haters took as "he doesn't even think Knights a pg". i also agree with him that you can't put knight in a box and define him as a 1 position player, when his skill set allows him to play multiple positions. For some reason, some posters here think that's a bad thing and want their "true pg"

So it sounded like Cheeks was saying Knight was versatile, but Cheeks' comments were largely interpreted as saying Knight was incapable of playing the 1. The day of the Bob Cousy & John Stockton sort of lead guard is going the way of the dinosaur. Guys running the offense are developing into incredible athletes (Rose & Westbrook).

With the addition of Cheeks and Billups, Detroit has shown considerable interest in developing BK7. I still believe BK7 is up for the challenge. I hope he uses the slights as motivation and becomes one of the truely great players in the league...while he's a Piston.

[DetroitSho]

With our previous team, that was a playoff/title team, they were BUILT to grind you into powder in the half-court set. They had shooters, plain and simple. This team right now is a running team, filled with athletes of the highest order.

Add some more shooting, and we could play both ways, wich is deadly.

RUN RUN RUN for right now though. The fewer half-court sets the better.

The championship team didn't have an over abundance of shooters. No more than what's on this current team.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

Not even close. RIP, Billups, and Prince. James and Hunter off the bench.

Just not even close.

When dafuq did Mike James, Lindsey Hunter and Tayshaun become known as shooters? The revisionist history, I tell ya. It was Chauncey, RIP (who actually was terrible from long distance), Rasheed and Memo.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

[HotelVitale]

^Our rebounding will be fine. We will have practically three 10 rebounds per game players on the court together. We can afford to let one of them gamble and still take care of the boards. Though I think we will be just as effective in the halfcourt as in transistion and won't need to run all the time. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to go back and watch film of the 80s when teams had huge frontlines and rarely ever shot 3s. With a frontline as imposing as we have, the last thing we will be worried about is how to score in the halfcourt. Those are problem that jumpshooting teams with no post presence have to worry about, not teams with 3 great bigs on the court together. Its like a great running team in football. Most of the top running teams have weak passing games, and the defense knows they are running and puts everyone in the box, yet they still can't stop them from pounding it up the middle for 5 yards every time. We might have a weak perimeter game, and teams may know we're going inside everytime, but ultimately talent/size wins out, and if we have more talent and size inside than they do, we are going to own the paint regardless. Though I think our perimeter game is going be really good too with Billups/Knight/KCP in the backcourt.
We really have a complete team, its just experience that's going to hold us back I think. Our talent is up there with any non-Miami team though, in my opinion.

Q, I like a lot of your posts but this one is pretty awful. Almost every line screams, 'dont say anything bad about my team! We're awesome!' For example:
A)Having a couple of good statistical rebounders doesn't mean we're golden on the glass no matter what. For example, if Smith leaks and doesn't box his man out, then the opposing sf has a good shot at a long rebound. It's that simple. Most teams don't consider this a worthwhile gamble in most situations, and generally only teams that intentionally try to speed up the game opt for this move. (Also Smith's rebounding rate is pretty pedestrian for a pf, he just played more minutes than nearly all other pts). Monroe and Drummond are good rebounders but they're not going to get every rebound just because they have nice stats. If they're not in position and working, they're not going to board well.

B) The football analogy makes no sense; you can muscle your way to a few yards in football, but you can't manufacture good shoot attempts through pure strength--you need SKILL as well. Unless you have skilled post scorers, throwing the rock into the post is no higher percentage than kicking it into the strands from half court. Monroe is a really nice, efficient high post player, but Drummond is not. Not yet at least. He'll score on putbacks at a great rate, but he's not a shot creator. Strength is great for rebounding though-- are you proposing that our offense is based on chucking up bad shots so our strong and athletic front line can score on orebs?

C) In the half court, we have one option--Monroe-- who used possessions at anything close to above average rate last year. Smith was bad last year, Stuckey was bad, Knight was really bad. Why is it not a problem that none of our guys can create effectively for themselves or others? How does strength bail you out of that?

D) This one is unnecessary, but walk me through this reasoning. Here's a recap of our offseason: We signed a really good defensive player with an inefficient but prolific offensive game, and we lost our best offensive backcourt player who was also a bad defender. We drafted a nice prospect with a good stroke and signed a fan favorite in the twilight of his career. We let an unpopular mediocre vet pf go and drafted a super raw pf project. How does this translate into a shift from being a really bad team that wasn't in the playoff hunt in a weak conference... to being the second most talented team in the conference?

Look, the pistons are my team and I'm standing with them, but if the discussion isn't going to be more sophisticated than 'all our guys are beasts! F*ck yeah!,' why not just head down to the sports bar and let it rip?

[sc8581]

^Our rebounding will be fine. We will have practically three 10 rebounds per game players on the court together. We can afford to let one of them gamble and still take care of the boards. Though I think we will be just as effective in the halfcourt as in transistion and won't need to run all the time. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to go back and watch film of the 80s when teams had huge frontlines and rarely ever shot 3s. With a frontline as imposing as we have, the last thing we will be worried about is how to score in the halfcourt. Those are problem that jumpshooting teams with no post presence have to worry about, not teams with 3 great bigs on the court together. Its like a great running team in football. Most of the top running teams have weak passing games, and the defense knows they are running and puts everyone in the box, yet they still can't stop them from pounding it up the middle for 5 yards every time. We might have a weak perimeter game, and teams may know we're going inside everytime, but ultimately talent/size wins out, and if we have more talent and size inside than they do, we are going to own the paint regardless. Though I think our perimeter game is going be really good too with Billups/Knight/KCP in the backcourt.
We really have a complete team, its just experience that's going to hold us back I think. Our talent is up there with any non-Miami team though, in my opinion.

Q, I like a lot of your posts but this one is pretty awful. Almost every line screams, 'dont say anything bad about my team! We're awesome!' For example:
A)Having a couple of good statistical rebounders doesn't mean we're golden on the glass no matter what. For example, if Smith leaks and doesn't box his man out, then the opposing sf has a good shot at a long rebound. It's that simple. Most teams don't consider this a worthwhile gamble in most situations, and generally only teams that intentionally try to speed up the game opt for this move. (Also Smith's rebounding rate is pretty pedestrian for a pf, he just played more minutes than nearly all other pts). Monroe and Drummond are good rebounders but they're not going to get every rebound just because they have nice stats. If they're not in position and working, they're not going to board well.

B) The football analogy makes no sense; you can muscle your way to a few yards in football, but you can't manufacture good shoot attempts through pure strength--you need SKILL as well. Unless you have skilled post scorers, throwing the rock into the post is no higher percentage than kicking it into the strands from half court. Monroe is a really nice, efficient high post player, but Drummond is not. Not yet at least. He'll score on putbacks at a great rate, but he's not a shot creator. Strength is great for rebounding though-- are you proposing that our offense is based on chucking up bad shots so our strong and athletic front line can score on orebs?

C) In the half court, we have one option--Monroe-- who used possessions at anything close to above average rate last year. Smith was bad last year, Stuckey was bad, Knight was really bad. Why is it not a problem that none of our guys can create effectively for themselves or others? How does strength bail you out of that?

D) This one is unnecessary, but walk me through this reasoning. Here's a recap of our offseason: We signed a really good defensive player with an inefficient but prolific offensive game, and we lost our best offensive backcourt player who was also a bad defender. We drafted a nice prospect with a good stroke and signed a fan favorite in the twilight of his career. We let an unpopular mediocre vet pf go and drafted a super raw pf project. How does this translate into a shift from being a really bad team that wasn't in the playoff hunt in a weak conference... to being the second most talented team in the conference?

Look, the pistons are my team and I'm standing with them, but if the discussion isn't going to be more sophisticated than 'all our guys are beasts! F*ck yeah!,' why not just head down to the sports bar and let it rip?[/quote]

Thank You. That certainly needed to be said.