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Stan gets thru to Josh Smith. This is the most excited I been about Pistons basketball since the Larry Brown days.

Josh Smith and Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy had a good talk during the weekend. The discussion was about what the forward does well, and both came up with the same general answers. One thing not on the list is three-pointers. He doesn't need to shoot many this season.

"I think Josh has a very good understanding of the shots he needs to shoot that are not only best for him, but best for our team,'' Van Gundy said. "He's one of the elite guys in the league around the basket. Last year, stuff inside, right at the rim, in two straight years, he has been 71% and 77%. There's very few guys at that level.

"Will he get some? The other night, late in the shot clock, throw it back … you have to take that shot. He's going to shoot some. It's not a matter of number, one a game, less than one a game. It's when are you shooting them? There might a game where he might take three.''

Both agreed that coming down and making one pass and jacking up a three isn't what the offense will be about.

Van Gundy asked Smith, "Where is your greatness? Where are you elite, where are you at a place where you're better than almost any other forward in the league?''

Van Gundy said Smith's answer was right on.

"Willing passer, which he definitely is,'' Van Gundy said. "He's got the vision to see the floor and get the ball to people. He's one of the best playmaking forwards in this league. There aren't very many better, particularly at the four spot. But even at the three, you have very few guys who would be there with him.

"He knew right away that he's really good around the basket, and the numbers would say he's elite there. I gave him one, and I honestly believe this: He's got everything he needs to be an all-defensive type guy. With that being said, he takes too many possessions off. We watched clips from the first two games. Like I said, he's not a guy who has a problem dealing with reality. You show him eight or nine clips of him jogging back defensively.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2014/10/15/detroit-pistons-josh-smith/17303577/

My god I love SVG. Just the way he calls everyone out is so great.

MotownMadness wrote:My god I love SVG. Just the way he calls everyone out is so great.

The thing is he works with them individually with their best interests at heart as a confidant so that they don't take it the wrong way and buy into the team aspect of it. There was never a single player that complained about Stan while he was with the Magic except Dwight in his last year when he wanted to leave to go to LA to become a star.

Still skeptical about an old dog learning new tricks, but if this is true, dude could be a legit allstar. He has everything needed except for that region between the eyes.

Also SVG is the man. Homie don't play that sh*t, such a breath of fresh air around here.

At last, an Actual Coach on the Pistons basketball team.
This changes everything

If smith takes stans coaching advice and so does dre with the ball watching and not jumping on pump fakes,then that front court has a real shot of being the best in the league.

I also wonder if moose is starting to second guess himself,seeing how great of a coach stan is.

I have to believe Josh understood this last year too.

There's an expression about two hands and a flashlight that may yet apply...

11 years of being the same low iq chucker has me in a wait & see approach. The rhetoric is good though.

His defensive ability is a bit overrated. He takes half the possessions off as the article mentioned & his major strength defensively is shot blocking.


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This just means he's going to shot more long twos

kurtis48239 wrote:I also wonder if moose is starting to second guess himself,seeing how great of a coach stan is.

He could still re-sign with the Pistons...he may have lost 4-5M this year, but I bet he can make up for that over the length of a new deal signed next year regardless of where he goes, IF he can carry this preseason into actual games.

Smith over 70% at the rim, Moose probably around 55% and that's supposed to be his strength. Just saying.

I'd love to see him just completely eliminate threes aside from end of the shot clock shots to be honest. I can live with a mid range jumper every now and then to keep the defense honest...

Really glad that we have SVG as our coach.

CT of mine is Pop reached out to UFA Monroe and promised him Duncan's spot when Tim retires after this season. Seem to be the ideal situation for Monroe - stability, great team, much closer to home of NO, and understandable reason why he'd go the QO route.

epheisey wrote:

kurtis48239 wrote:I also wonder if moose is starting to second guess himself,seeing how great of a coach stan is.

He could still re-sign with the Pistons...he may have lost 4-5M this year, but I bet he can make up for that over the length of a new deal signed next year regardless of where he goes, IF he can carry this preseason into actual games.

My homerish hope is that a main reason for Monroe to wait on inking a contract is the upcoming TV deal and how that will affect salary cap structure.

The deal is for 2016 and onward but could also influence next year's cap number as both the players union and owners want to avoid a large single year increase in cap numbers in 2016-17. One such way to do this being talked about is bringing the part of the increase forward into 2015 to 'smooth out' the hit in 2016.

The cap number projected was already supposed to be around 66.5 million prior to the TV deal and could go above 70 million if smoothing takes place. (We are currently at 63.2 million)

So in one way it actually is fiscally prudent to wait a year and possibly get an entire new contract locked in at the higher payout structure the TV deal would provide.

Of course most of the above is still wishful thinking. There's still an extremely high probability Monroe signs that contract elsewhere.

sc8581 wrote:Smith over 70% at the rim, Moose probably around 55% and that's supposed to be his strength. Just saying.

Gimme some attempt numbers, how many jumpers has Monroe had compared to Smith? How many attempts in the paint for each of them.

Oh and that sexy 23% from the free throw line from J Smudge this pre season, he's look brutal this preseason, even with limiting his 3's, still loves the ill advised long two.

Opponents will continue to pack the paint defending our PFs (and SFs when Smith is there)... they will be dared to shoot on the perimeter... what happens is the defense can play tight vs our wings because the paint is congested.
Still an issue.

Talk is nice.

I'll wait on the results, though.

BadMofoPimp wrote:

MotownMadness wrote:My god I love SVG. Just the way he calls everyone out is so great.

The thing is he works with them individually with their best interests at heart as a confidant so that they don't take it the wrong way and buy into the team aspect of it. There was never a single player that complained about Stan while he was with the Magic except Dwight in his last year when he wanted to leave to go to Brooklyn to become a star.

Fixed

Dwight never really wanted to go to LA.

But yeah that 2012 season was terribly handled by him.





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Moose10Fan wrote:

sc8581 wrote:Smith over 70% at the rim, Moose probably around 55% and that's supposed to be his strength. Just saying.

Gimme some attempt numbers, how many jumpers has Monroe had compared to Smith? How many attempts in the paint for each of them.

Oh and that sexy 23% from the free throw line from J Smudge this pre season, he's look brutal this preseason, even with limiting his 3's, still loves the ill advised long two.

I never said Smith was a superstar or anything, just pointing out that he's better than Monroe even at what Moose does best.

Snakebites wrote:Talk is nice.

I'll wait on the results, though.

Yup, Smith is saying all the right things this offseason... but thus far his game has been mixed.

He seems like a player who reacts off instinct, and it's going to take a while to go from saying he needs to take less 3's to actually internalizing it so that when he gets the ball, his first instinct is to look inside or swing it to a team mate.