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Good move? Bad move?

Personally, if Ratliff stays healthy, he will be one of the best back up centers in the L with his shot blocking and interior defense.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../802280505

First Dale Davis now him. How many bigs do they want?

PopAGat wrote:First Dale Davis now him. How many bigs do they want?

Considering they didnt have ANY centers and bunch of PFs (Sheed, Dyess, Maxiell, Amir, DDavis) i think its a good pickup... insurance is always a good thing to have

It's a good move for the Pistons. What is this man? Once a player gets waived or bought out, a team just gets the player signed in a heart beat. The NBA is going crazy with signing and trade players this year.

Holy ****, I didn't know so many teams were flying under the 15 man route.. in fact DET wasn't because that was reasoning for no Webber.

Regardless Early this season a healthy Theo was a good starting center.

Huge signing for DET. Gives them a second shotblocker whe PF's pull Wallace away from the basket

Ratliff is serviceable when healthy. Problem is, he never is.

*sigh*

If Ratliff is even passably healthy, this adds a lot of useful depth to their team. He was doing reasonably well in Minny before he went down. And with Dale Davis, it's not like Ratliff will need to play more than like 10, 15 mpg, if that. This is a beautiful low-risk, high-reward signing. Joe Dumars continues to impress.

Detroit's new depthchart:
Billups/Stuckey/Hunter
Hamilton/Dixon/Afflalo
Prince/Hayes
McDyess/Maxiell/Johnson/Hermann
Wallace/Ratliff/Samb

Consider the talent on the Pistons that will be INACTIVE! Two of: pretty-boy shooter Walter Hermann, 1st-round pick Arron Afflalo, wily veteran Lindsey Hunter, pure-scorer Juan Dixon, and lottery-talent Amir Johnson, as well as project Cheikh Samb.

Aren't you missing Davis Gjense ? I thought they signed him too

Wow, didn't expect that, good pick-up by Detroit!

As has been said and from what I've seen, when healthy this season, played very effectively. He can still go.

Pistons definitely got their center situation addressed.

Got to love all these moves, specifically between Boston and Detroit lately... Dixon, PJ Brown, Cassell, now Theo Ratliff. I can't wait for that series, and their next game in March. Going to be some seriously good basketball there.

^No. They never signed him. They announced that deep discussions were being held and that a contract offer was being negotiated, but most figured that Joe was holding out for someone to be released. I thought that person was Jamaal Magloire, but I'm glad to be wrong in this instance.

Besides, we would have 15 players and would need to release somebody in order to bring Ratilff in (Dixon? Samb?), had we already signed Dale Davis.

Ballings7 wrote:Dale Davis will be third center.

Pistons definitely got their center situation addressed.

NO.
There is no reason for Dale Davis now that Theo Ratliff is available (seeing how their games are completely redundant) and he was NOT on the team prior to Ratliff's release.

We have:
1 Billups 2 Hamilton 3 Prince 4 McDyess 5 Wallace 6 Maxiell 7 Stuckey 8 Hayes 9 Johnson 10 Afflalo 11 Dixon 12 Hermann 13 Hunter 14 Samb, and 15 Davis/Ratliff. One and not the other.

Just missed my edit, GJense, and I just read your post about Davis 15 seconds ago.

No need to be that emphatic, anyway.

GJense4181 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



NO.
There is no reason for Dale Davis now that Theo Ratliff is available (seeing how their games are completely redundant) and he was NOT on the team prior to Ratliff's release.

Disagree; Ratliff's a help defender, Davis is more man-on.

I think Dixon is expendable enough to make room for Davis.

The rich get richer. All these vets moving to contenders just makes for a better playoffs.

^and Rasheed is a great strong-side defender.
McDyess is a stellar rebounder.
Davis would provide those same two traits, except watered-down.

I meant to say that their roles would be completely redundant. Each would only be asked to provide toughness off the bench and/or 6 fouls against bigger, taller teams. I'd rather have weak-side shot-blocking as the additional bonus.

and Dixon also provides a role that nobody else on the team can. He can create his own jumpshot off of the dribble. Afflalo's jumper has been shaky in the pros and only shoots when wide-open, Stuckey prefers to drive to the basket or take the given elbow jumpshot, Rip requires the usage of screens or gimme corner three-balls, Chauncey tends to pull up from downtown or post up, Hunter has no business shooting (ever), and Hayes is a three-point chucker and little else.

Chauncey picks his spots almost TOO well, Rip doesn't have the ball-handling to safely force the issue, Stuckey plays tentatively, and Afflalo is too conservative offensively. Dixon SHOULD be that 4th guard, playing SG alongside the 6'5" PG Rodney Stuckey.

GJense4181 wrote:^and Rasheed is a great strong-side defender.
McDyess is a stellar rebounder.
Davis would provide those same two traits, except watered-down.

Absolutely, but he'd be depth and CHEAP depth at that.

and Dixon also provides a role that nobody else on the team can. He can create his own jumpshot off of the dribble.

Dixon is unfiltered cow poo and has been at every stop of his career. He's an undiscplined streaky chucker. I've seen him in Washington, Portland and in Toronto and I have no qualms about the cow poo analogy. He's definitely waive-worthy.

Another good pickup by the Pistons, Ratliff is another good veteran big that can play some D. I happen to think Juan Dixon is a great addition to their team. I guess it's the homer in me.

If Dixon is used as a 2 guard, and his shot is falling, then he can be a very useful player. If his shot is not falling, get him outta the game and leave him on the bench. And playing him alongside Stuckey would be a smarter idea so that Dixon can guard the pg and Stuckey the sg.

However, Juan Dixon should never, ever, ever be used as a point guard. If he is, expect that lead to freefall . . . and expect to get frustrated and get sudden urges to throw things at the tv . .

Ratliff has played like 12 games total this year and last year combined.