Moderators: Cowology, theBigLip, Snakebites, dVs33
Terry (Flint, Mich.): How many games has the starting five plus Bynum, Gordon and Charlie Villanueva played together? I see so much potential in this team if they could just get on the court together.
Langlois: Two – the season opener at Memphis and the Dec. 27 game at Toronto. After that game, Will Bynum went back on the shelf with his sprained ankle, where he’s still in residence, joined recently by Ben Gordon and Tayshaun Prince.
Steve (Tecumseh, Ontario): After the win against New Orleans, a friend of mine who is also a Pistons fan got upset because he thought by winning, we were throwing away our chance to get Wall in the draft next season and any championship hopes for the future. He also claims Joe and the organization would agree with him that we should throw away the season for a shot at the lottery. How would you respond to something like that?
Langlois: Pretty evident that Dumars wouldn’t agree at all, or else why would he tolerate playing veterans like Rip Hamilton and Ben Wallace 40-plus minutes in pursuit of victory? As for the merits of landing in the lottery, ask the Los Angeles Clippers how that works. John Wall might become a great NBA player, but the New Jersey Nets all but have a lock on the worst record and the 25 percent chance of winning the lottery, which, as history proves, doesn’t mean much on lottery night. Attempting to avoid winning over the 40-plus games remaining infuses an organization with a toxin that isn’t easily removed. And when the carrot is so elusive – little correlation between worst record and landing the No. 1 pick, and a spotty record of “can’t-miss” prospects truly becoming franchise-altering players – it’s just foolish to intentionally tank.
Chris (Lake Orion, Mich.): Is there a way the Pistons could pick up Rashad McCants or Jerry Stackhouse? They’d make the bench deeper with our injuries to Prince and Gordon because both can play the two or the three. Also, if we could pick up Brevin Knight, he can help out Atkins and Stuckey with Bynum’s injury.
Langlois: The Pistons only have one roster spot, Chris, and they expect Prince and Gordon back soon. McCants wasn’t doing much to help a Minnesota team desperate for wing players and hasn’t landed a spot anywhere else, either. Stackhouse was a player who always relied on his explosiveness and that has reasonably eroded at this point in his career, but it appears that Milwaukee – which lost Michael Redd for the season – is about to give him a chance. Brevin Knight is 34, which is pretty old for an undersized point guard who relies on quickness. When players have been out of the league for a while, there’s usually a pretty good reason for that.
Karl (Fort Gratiot, Mich.): Since the Shock aren’t going to be in Detroit anymore, will the championship banners they’ve won remain on the ceiling of The Palace or will the banners move to Tulsa?
Langlois: They stay here, along with the WNBA trophies, Karl.
Aizirk (San Juan, Puerto Rico): How hard is it for Stuckey to dunk? There are many instances where he is in position to dunk with both hands when it would mean a sure basket or a sure foul. I think I recall him dunking, but how hard is it for him?
Langlois: How many point guards dunk more than rarely unless it’s a breakaway? Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo … I’m running out of ideas here. Stuckey can dunk – he threw one down in Saturday’s win over the Knicks in transition. That one came off of one foot, but most of his have been two-foot dunks. There just aren’t enough opportunities over the course of a season for a point guard to get inside a defense and dunk for this to crack the top 10 list of reasons that will make or break Stuckey’s future in the NBA. I bet Chauncey Billups didn’t have 10 dunks in his Pistons career.
Paul (Detroit): Assists per game is not a real measure of a point guard’s effectiveness. I’d like to see assist opportunities per game as a statistic. Rodney could be getting the right to the right places, but if players miss shots, there’s nothing he can do about it.
Langlois: You make a fair point, Paul, but I’m guessing a stats guru would say that over 82 games, something like that balances itself out. I suppose the point guard of a team with a stable of terrific shooters – perhaps Jameer Nelson in Orlando – will see his assists total artificially inflated by the skills of those around him. Basketball is becoming saturated with stats, not quite to the degree of baseball, and I’m sure someday there will be universally accepted measurements that accurately reflect a player’s value. But I haven’t seen anything yet that beats a good basketball guy watching someone play a representative sample of games and trusting his instincts.
Jermaine (Sterling Heights, Mich.): Could you please tell someone in the Pistons’ organization that this team needs to become a running team, very up-tempo on offense and defense. Jonas should be starting the rest of the season. He’s a great energy guy with athletic ability. Playing up-tempo would just cut everyone loose. Tell Stuck to stop walking the ball up the court – push, push, push.
Langlois: I trust you didn’t read True Blue Pistons last week, Jermaine, where Stuckey essentially said the same thing. John Kuester agrees – to a point. He wants Stuckey to selectively push. There are a few problems with the plan. One, the Pistons are still playing without three (Gordon, Prince, Bynum) of their top eight players, and two of them (Gordon, Bynum) are players who’d benefit from a quicker pace. Two, it’s not exactly a style that plays to the strengths of two of their key players (Prince, Hamilton). But down the road, at times when the Pistons are playing with Bynum, Gordon, Stuckey and Jerebko in the lineup, yeah, that’s a team that’s going to run.
Krys (Harrison, Mich.): What’s going on? We have the talent, but can’t get it done. I love this team but it’s really hard to watch your favorite team get beat so often.
Langlois: Well, what’s going on mostly is that five players who were indisputably in the rotation to start the season have missed a total of 81 games through the first 39 on the Pistons’ schedule – 26 for Hamilton, 28 for Prince, 14 for Gordon, 12 for Bynum and one for Villanueva. And at least in the cases of Gordon, Bynum and Villanueva, several of the games in which they did play, they played well below par. Hard to think of another team that’s had their season similarly affected. Golden State’s had a ton of injuries as well, but nobody really thought the Warriors had a shot at the playoffs. Portland is doing an admirable job holding its season together without both Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla out for the season. But the Pistons have had the guts of their scoring removed for much of the season. That’s what’s going on, pretty much, and the lack of lineup continuity has weakened a team heavily reliant on chemistry to yield positive defensive results.
Byron (Detroit): Why is everybody talking about trading Rip or Prince? Why can’t we keep all of our backcourt, including Prince, Charlie V, Big Ten and the rookies and still go out and add a big man or two up front?
Langlois: Unless you’re talking about signing a few D-League centers, how do you propose they add even one big man worthy of seeing the floor without offering anyone who’s actually playing right now? Prince and Hamilton are the obvious trade chips Joe D has at his disposal. In a perfect world, he takes back a young, productive big man. The reality is those guys don’t get traded unless you pay a huge premium. It’s possible that when and if they’re traded, the primary objective is cap relief and future payroll flexibility, much as it was with the Chauncey Billups deal.
Geoff (Mount Pleasant, Mich.): Do you see the Pistons having any kind of luck in unloading Rip, Tay and ideally Maxiell’s contracts? There’s got to be a couple teams out there that have the money, have a pretty good team and are looking for that extra piece to put them over the top: Boston, Orlando, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, the Lakers, etc.
Langlois: Hard to say if it’ll be a buyers’ or sellers’ market, Geoff. Do teams out West see the Lakers as vulnerable? If so, then maybe teams like Dallas, San Antonio, Portland or Denver will be scouring for a key addition. Trouble is, almost all of them are probably interested in somebody to match up with LA’s size – looking for a big body to check Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Kwame Brown could be somebody who would interest those teams, and maybe that would lead to a bigger deal or a multiteam trade. No way to predict the likelihood of that happening, but it’s going to be an intriguing several weeks ahead.
Robert (Georgetown, Ky.): This might sound crazy, but the injuries could be the best thing to happen to the Pistons to set up the next few years for a quicker rebuilding. If we end up with a lottery pick, we’ll be dangerous next year. The Washington Wizards could have said the same thing last year, though, and look how things turned out.
Langlois: A thin silver lining is the exposure the rookies, Jonas Jerebko especially, have received. Getting the chance to see Jerebko and Austin Daye perform in games hanging in the balance gives Joe Dumars and his staff a better idea of what they have in their young players. Not sure the Pistons would say the difference between picking 15-20 and making the playoffs or picking 10-14, if that’s the way it winds up, and not making the playoffs was worth the agony they’ve endured so far, but I suppose if the lottery falls their way and they wind up with a top-three pick, you could be on to something.
Lane (Ortonville, Mich.): Knowing that Orlando could use another point guard and Detroit could use a big man, would a trade of Will Bynum and Kwame Brown for Marcin Gortat be a good match for both teams?
Langlois: It’s a reasonable suggestion, Lane. It’s no secret the Pistons have to get younger, bigger and better up front and that they have solid depth on the perimeter, especially with Jonas Jerebko showing the ability to play small forward. While I’d hate to see the Pistons part with Bynum, if they think Gortat has the ability to play 30 minutes a night and routinely affect games, it’s a deal that would at least earn consideration. Brown would be a reasonable replacement for him for the rest of this season, covering Orlando’s backup center needs. A healthy Bynum would add a truly dynamic element on Orlando’s offense. But Orlando might have a more specific need in mind to fill over the summer by dangling Gortat and I have no idea if the Pistons really believe Gortat is worth the money he has coming over the next four years.
Lou (Warren, Mich.): What advantages do these long shooting sleeves provide? I see a bit of padding at the elbow that I’m sure is good in case of a collision. Aside from that, do they provide any advantages to the shooter or are they just trendy?
Langlois: I’ve heard a few guys say they just like the feel or they like the feeling of warmth supplied. One player told me he liked that it absorbed the perspiration and kept it off of his shooting hand. That made more sense than anything I’d heard. Some players don’t like the encumberance. Couldn’t tell you if there’s any proven benefit and not sure where it started.
Ryan (Lake City, Mich.): I’m wondering why I’m hearing so-called Pistons fans saying we should fire Joe D. People don’t realize he was the GM of the decade and has done a lot of good things for the organization. I just wish people would know what they’re talking about before they say ridiculous things.
Langlois: I just haven’t seen much, if anything, come my way suggesting Joe Dumars should be fired, Ryan. I’ve read and heard various criticisms of his drafting record and the decision to spend on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. The NBA draft is a much different animal than the NFL draft, the other most heavily scrutinized draft because it’s the only other one where fans are somewhat familiar with the talent pool due to the exposure college football and basketball get compared to amateur hockey or baseball. But while dozens of rookies make a big mark in the NFL every season, maybe one dozen NBA rookies are ready to take on significant roles. And half of NBA first-rounders never amount to much. People still use Mateen Cleaves as a pillar of their argument against Joe D’s drafting acumen, when the reality is that draft was full of players, even among the top 10 picks, that had NBA careers no more remarkable than Cleaves. Stromile Swift, Marcus Fizer, Darius Miles, DerMarr Johnson and Chris Mihm were five of the top seven picks that year. As for Gordon and Villanueva, let’s see them play a half season at full health before rushing to judgment.
video in the link above^.Wallace with the Finish
Ben Wallace takes the pass in the paint and hammers the rock home.
Video in the link above^.Pistons vs. Knicks: First half
The Pistons are trying to win their fourth straight win but are losing to the Knicks 57-43 at the half.
Video in the link above^.Pistons vs. Knicks
Nate Robinson drops 27 points to help the Knicks defeat the Pistons.
Three and Out: Knicks 99, Pistons 91
What Happened:
The winning streak ended at three. Rip had a tummy ache that prevented him from playing, adding him to the already too long injury list of Prince, Gordon, and Bynum. The Pistons allowed 65 points combined in the 2nd and 4th quarters en route to the 99-91 loss.
The Good:
Ben Wallace. He finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds, and he had a handful of tips that resulted in rebounds he wasn't credited with. Not found in the box score was him taking charges, contesting shots, and hitting a fade away jumper from the post position. He and Austin Daye were the only Pistons in the plus for +/-, both finishing at plus-7.