'Nasty News - Traversing Time & Space' Vol: 54

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Link to volume 53: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=949603&p=20982596#p20982596

This thread will contain Pistons news, injuries, free agent signings, trades, draft and news throughout the NBA, plus scores from both the NBA and college.

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http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... ve_x-.html

Pistons' Kwame Brown to have X-rays on hand
Detroit Pistons center Kwame Brown said after practice Wednesday he will have X-rays Thursday morning to determine the extent of a left hand injury that has worsened in practice. His status for Thursday night's preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves is questionable.

Brown practiced Wednesday, but he had a large bandage over his left hand and said he was having difficulty closing the hand because of swelling around the knuckles, which affected his ability to catch passes and go to his left. "I've been just trying to focus on things I can do, like getting teammates open and rebounding, running, playing good defense," Brown said. "But it's definitely hindering a little bit of my game. It's making me not as aggressive as I want to be. "Every practice, I'm getting whacked, so it's getting worse by the day."

The 6-foot-11, 270-pound center is in competition to start in the Pistons' frontcourt. He has played well this preseason, averaging 7.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game.Detroit has two more preseason games before beginning the regular season next Wednesday on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... f_the.html

Allen Iverson to come off the bench for Memphis Grizzlies
Classify this in the "things that will end well" department: Memphis coach Lionel Hollins says that Allen Iverson will start the season coming off the bench for the Grizzlies: "He hasn't had a chance to perform," Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. "And when he does come back he'll be way behind with how we're doing things. So when he gets into a game, it'll be limited. That's probably where we'll wind up at the start of the season."

Those all sound like very plausible and reasonable ideas, and if there's one thing we know about Iverson from his Pistons days, it's the fact that he's very reasonable about such matters.

He would not come off the bench for a team that, at the time, was a perennial championship contender, I can't imagine this little experiment will last long on a team that has never won a playoff game.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... llups.html

O.J. Mayo says Chauncey Billups is the best leader in the NBA
Not that Pistons fans need any reminder of the leadership void that occurred when Chauncey Billups was traded, but Billups' might just be the most respected player in the NBA, so says O.J. Mayo of the Grizzlies: "Chauncey Billups, in my mind, is the best leader in our league," Mayo told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "Chris Paul is a great point guard. Deron Williams is great. Rajon Rondo. But Chauncey Billups is by far the No. 1 leader in our league. Just being around him and seeing how he leads on and off the court was a big thing."

Billups' impact on the Nuggets last season is the best example of this. Tom Friend's profile on Chauncey for ESPN.com was one of the best things I read last year, and included this passage on Billups' impact on young Nuggets' stars Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith: It has been a stunning transformation. And as the Nuggets enter the building, one by one, for their playoff opener against New Orleans, their two most talented, enigmatic players -- Anthony and Smith -- are dressed to kill. Anthony is wearing a grey pinstripe suit, and Smith is wearing black dress pants. Chauncey has made them pull up their britches. "'Melo and J.R. have dressed up more this year than they ever have," team executive Rex Chapman says. "Not that that wins games for you, but Chauncey's taught them it's OK not to be on cool duty all the time."

Smith, in particular, tells people no one has ever influenced him more than Chauncey. On the court, Chauncey wants him talking on defense, and off the court, Chauncey wants him out of clubs. And Smith is all ears. If more young players in the league start emulating Chauncey, it can't be a bad thing.

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http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... orwar.html

Pistons cut ex-Michigan forward Maceo Baston
The Detroit Pistons have waived reserve forward Maceo Baston, a move that was expected to happen at some point before the start of the regular season next week. Pistons president Joe Dumars announced the decision in a press release Wednesday afternoon.

Baston, a former University of Michigan standout, averaged 0.5 points, 0.5 rebounds and 3.5 minutes in five preseason games. He averaged 2.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 8.0 minutes per game last year with the Indiana Pacers. The 33-year-old, fourth-year veteran was signed as a free agent in September, but was not expected to make the team.

Detroit now has 15 players on its active roster.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... t_the.html

Why all the assuming that the Detroit Pistons are going to trade Rip Hamilton?
Bethlehem Shoals at the Baseline touches on what has become a familiar meme in Pistons circles: that the Ben Gordon signing means a Rip Hamilton trade is inevitable: The more I think about this roster, the clearer it becomes that something's got to give, someone's got to go and Hamilton's the most likely target. You could even argue that this new Pistons team won't work unless Rip's shipped off. I don't disagree that there is a bit of redundancy in the backcourt. But to assume that Hamilton is going to be traded is illogical for a few reasons:

- He will turn 32 this year, is going into his 11th season in the league and has played huge minutes in long playoff runs six of the last seven years. Hamilton's renowned for keeping himself in great shape, but how many teams are in the market for 32-year-old shooting guards?
- He can score, but he doesn't necessarily create. Hamilton's been the Pistons' leading scorer every year since he's been here, but many of the league's best two-guards are guys who can get their own shot whenever they want or get teammates open shots because they draw double-teams. Hamilton gets many of his shots on catch and shoots, reliant on someone to get him the ball in good positions to score.
- His contract. This is the biggest hurdle: Hamilton is signed for four years (including this season) at about $12 million per. He'll be 36 when that contract runs out. Many NBA teams are either looking for expiring deals to make a run at the 2010 free agents or losing money because of poor attendance. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's far-fetched to think that a team would take on Hamilton without making the Pistons take a bad contract in return.
- Who's to say Joe Dumars even wants to trade Rip? First, Dumars is the one who gave Rip the extension. Why would he have done that with the Billups cap-space-clearing trade int he works if he didn't consider Hamilton a long-term piece?

Dumars also fired Michael Curry -- his hand-picked choice for the coaching job just one year ago -- at least in part because of a rift between Curry and Hamilton that Curry didn't sufficiently patch up. None of this is to argue that Rip should or shouldn't be traded -- the roster, as presently constructed, obviously has some challenges, and one less guard, clearing extra minutes for Will Bynum, wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but moving Rip for either cap space or a useful part that isn't signed to an onerous contract is not going to be easy. Dumars made it very clear last summer, before the Billups trade, that he doesn't make trades just to do them -- he better be getting cap space or some sort of asset in return. Given the choice of keeping Rip -- who wants to be in Detroit -- or trading him for a possibly flawed player signed equally long, I think I'd rather take my chances with Rip.

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http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... efens.html

Pistons make transition defense a priority
Rodney Stuckey remembers that only a couple weeks ago, the Detroit Pistons' transition defense was doing quite well. Today, not so much. "Transition (defense) right now is killing us," Stuckey said. "We were like top 10 the first three preseason games, and now, we're like 27th or something."

Several factors have contributed to Detroit losses in back-to-back preseason games, but few stick out as much as the team's struggles to get back defensively. In the Pistons' first three games, all wins, they outscored their opponents in transition by 13 points.In their past two games, both losses, the Pistons were outscored by eight points (45-37) in transition.Coincidence? Maybe.

But the Pistons are not willing to take that chance, which is why first-year coach John Kuester has made improving the team's transition defense a priority the past couple days in practice. "We talk about young players like (Will) Bynum and Stuckey who have done a great job throughout the preseason, making that (transition defense) a priority for them right now, knowing that we've gotten hurt," Kuester said. "That's so important for our team." It becomes even more important when Detroit uses a three-guard lineup that likely will feature only two players, the power forward and center, crashing the boards for rebounds. "We've been honing in on our transitional principles, and they've done a real good job the last two practices," Kuester said.

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http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... efens.html

Baston's former coach gets the boot
When Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball coach Pini Gershon was ejected from a preseason game against the New York Knicks this week, at least one of his former players was not surprised. "When I looked at the camera, I thought, 'Pini's up to his old antics again,' " said the Pistons' Maceo Baston, who won Euroleague championships in 2004 and '05 while playing for Gershon and Maccabi Tel Aviv. "With all the guys being gone ... he's the biggest celebrity on the team, so he's going to have fun with it."

Gershon, whose team lost 106-91 to the Knicks, was ejected after being whistled for a second technical foul -- an automatic ejection under NBA rules.

He initially refused to leave the court. But after about 10 minutes lapsed, during which a rabbi tried to convince officials to let him stay, Gershon finally relented and left the Madison Square Garden floor.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/baston_091021.html

Pistons Waive Forward Maceo Baston
Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars announced today that the club has requested waivers on forward Maceo Baston. He averaged 0.5 points, 0.5 rebounds and 3.5 minutes in five preseason games.

Baston, 33, appeared in 27 games with the Indiana Pacers last season averaging 2.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 8.0 minutes per game. He scored a season-high 12 points in a Pacers win over Miami (1/30) and had seven rebounds, an assist and two steals in a season-high 19 minutes. At Minnesota, (2/20), Baston tallied eight points, a season-high eight rebounds and a career-best three assists in 16 minutes.

The Pistons’ updated 2009-10 roster is a follows:
Detroit Pistons Roster
NO POS NAME HT WT DOB COLLEGE/COUNTRY YRS
17 G Chucky Atkins 5-11 160 8/14/74 South Florida 10
38 C Kwame Brown 6-11 270 3/10/82 Glynn Academy HS 8
12 G Will Bynum 6-0 185 1/4/83 Georgia Tech 2
5 F Austin Daye 6-11 205 6/5/88 Gonzaga R
7 G Ben Gordon 6-3 200 4/4/83 Connecticut 5
32 G Richard Hamilton 6-7 193 2/14/78 Connecticut 10
33 F Jonas Jerebko 6-10 231 3/2/87 Kinna, Sweden R
54 F Jason Maxiell 6-7 260 2/18/83 Cincinnati 4
22 F Tayshaun Prince 6-9 215 2/28/80 Kentucky 7
3 G Rodney Stuckey 6-5 205 4/21/86 Eastern Washington 2
35 F DaJuan Summers 6-8 240 1/24/88 Georgetown R
31 F/C Charlie Villanueva 6-11 232 8/24/84 Connecticut 4
6 C Ben Wallace 6-9 240 9/10/74 Virginia Union 13
13 G/F Deron Washington 6-7 202 12/12/85 Virginia Tech R
9 F/C Chris Wilcox 6-10 235 9/3/82 Maryland 7

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91021.html

Down to the Wire
Two preseason games in a 28-hour window and then four days to sort through the results are all that’s left for John Kuester and his staff to make the hard decisions awaiting them before the radically remade Pistons open the regular season Wednesday at Memphis.

The Pistons host Minnesota at The Palace on Thursday night, then play at Milwaukee on Friday with Kuester needing to whittle his rotation down to a manageable number and, beyond that, come to some determination on which combinations of players work best and how much he can lean on a three-guard lineup that puts his most dynamic players on the floor together.

Here are the three things to watch most closely over those last two preseason games, before the doors to Kuester’s laboratory close until the Memphis unveiling.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91021.html

1: Injury issues – Turns out Kwame Brown’s hand and Tayshaun Prince’s foot might be more troublesome than originally thought. The tape that Brown’s worn on his left hand since the early days of training camp keeps getting a little thicker and more noticeable. Brown said Wednesday that it gets jostled every day in practice, hinders his ability to catch and handle the ball and is getting worse instead of better. He said he’ll have it X-rayed on Thursday and take it from there.

It was known that Prince suffered a cut under his right big toe in a freak injury after getting kicked by Washington’s JaVale McGee while pursuing a rebound, but he said Wednesday that he also suffered a sprained toe in the incident. “From a lot of guys who’ve had the injury, even from (strength coach Arnie Kander’s) standpoint, that’s one of the toughest injuries you can have,” Prince said. “Especially when I’m right-foot dominant and do most of the things off of my right foot.”

Prince returned to practice Tuesday, but said, “I’m not back yet. I practiced; that doesn’t mean I’m back. Practice is not game speed. I’m out here practicing, but I still feel uncomfortable.” Prince hasn’t missed a game, a preseason game and barely a practice in his seven seasons with the Pistons, so he’s a fish out of water at rehabbing and returning from time off. Compounding his uncertainty is the degree of change around him this year. “It wouldn’t be a big deal in previous times because of the chemistry factor and understanding the guys,” he said. “This year, you’re going to be on the floor with a lot of different guys at different times of the game. This is definitely a tougher situation.”

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91021.html

2: Rotation tightening – Ben Gordon said Wednesday that he’s “antsy” to see what Kuester’s substitution patterns and rotation will look like once the regular season starts and wishes he could have had a little more time playing with Rip Hamilton during the preseason. He might get his wish starting with these last two preseason games. “We’ll be getting together with the staff again after practice, evaluating what we did today and looking toward what we want to do with Minnesota,” Kuester said. “But we are going to shorten the rotation a little bit.”

If Prince doesn’t play, it might be hard to read what Kuester has in mind for backup minutes at small forward. So far, he’s made heavy use of the three-guard lineup with Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey spending chunks of time at small forward with Gordon and Will Bynum logging heavy minutes in the backcourt. Whether that leaves room for Austin Daye when all hands are on deck remains to be seen, though Daye has given Kuester plenty to consider by showing off a tantalizing offensive skill set and holding his own defensively – though teams haven’t really tested him as they undoubtedly will when the games count.

The other position group to watch is the big men. Again, if Brown is limited, the results will be skewed. But the clues from the first six preseason games suggest that rookie Jonas Jerebko is making a case to steal minutes away from either Jason Maxiell or Chris Wilcox.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91021.html

3: Integrating Charlie V – Villanueva has had less than a week of practice time and one 20-minute stint in Saturday’s loss at Memphis, so Kuester probably is going to want to see how he fits with various lineup combinations. And that starts with the two players who seem set as frontcourt fixtures, Ben Wallace and Brown. So if Kuester starts Villanueva, it won’t necessarily be an indication he’s planning to start him during the regular season. It might merely be a way of getting a look at Villanueva first with one of Wallace or Brown, then with the other midway through the quarter when he goes to his bench.

But it goes beyond fitting Charlie V in with a frontcourt partner. Villanueva’s perimeter shooting touch – he knocked down both of his 3-point attempts at Memphis – is a weapon that also should play to the ability of guards like Bynum, Stuckey and Gordon to put the ball on the floor. “When I’m out there with Charlie and having Rip or BG out there, that’s going to open up a lot of things for me,” Stuckey said. “Charlie is a pick-and-pop guy.”

They’ve got two more preseason games to get a feel for how all of those moving parts are going to mesh.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91021.html

Maceo Baston, brought to camp on a non-guaranteed deal, was waived after Wednesday’s practice by the Pistons. Baston, 33, appeared briefly in five preseason games. That brings the roster to 15. Veteran guard Chucky Atkins also has a non-guaranteed contract but survives for now. The Pistons have yet to decide whether they’ll open the season with 14 or 15 – the NBA limit.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091021/S ... -improving

Brown says hand isn't improving
Pistons center Kwame Brown said this afternoon that his injured left hand is getting progressively worse and he will undergo an X-ray on Thursday to determine the severity of injury.

Brown, who did practice today, suffered the injury early in training camp and has worn a wrap around his left hand since. "It's not frustrating, it's just a part of the game," Brown said. "I've been trying to focus on other things I can do as far as getting teammates open, rebounding and running and playing defense. "But it's definitely hindering a little bit of my game. I'm not as aggressive as I want to be."

Brown hasn't missed any time and he put together a solid preseason in which he leads the team in rebounding with 6.5 per game. But Brown said the injury can't heal since his left hand gets bumped every day in practice.

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http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2009 ... wame-Brown

Nagging injuries hamper Tayshaun Prince, Kwame Brown
The last thing the Pistons need is injuries this late in the exhibition season. But a couple of key players have been hit with nagging pains. Tayshaun Prince (right toe) and Kwame Brown (left hand) are nursing injuries heading into Thursday's exhibition game against Minnesota.

Detroit's final preseason game is Friday at Milwaukee. Prince cut and sprained his toe during a game Oct. 13 against Washington. The cut has healed, but the sprain could keep Prince out of the lineup for the final two preseason games. Brown has played despite an injury that's kept his hand taped for much of the exhibition season. But, "it's getting worse" said Brown after Wednesday's practice.

Brown will have X-rays on the hand Thursday. He said the injury is preventing him from using his left hand and sticking it out on defense. "It's definitely hindering my game; I can't be as aggressive as I want be," Brown said.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091020/B ... -community

Pistons doing good in community
The Detroit Pistons teamed up with National City to donate 1,000 pairs of new shoes and socks to children in the metro Detroit area. This event, scheduled for Tuesday evening at Boll Family YMCA in Detroit, is part of the NBA Cares “Week of Service” where every NBA team is giving a day of service to their local community.The donation was for Samaritan’s Feet, a humanitarian relief organization based in Charlotte, N.C. that puts shoes on the feet of children all around the world.

The Pistons also will be recognizing one cause per month during the regular season, with a home game devoted to raising money and awareness. The first such game will be the home opener vs. Oklahoma City on Oct. 30. The opening night program, “Let’s Go To Work For A Cure,” will highlight breast health awareness and benefit breast cancer research programs at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. During the home opener, the Pistons are celebrating breast cancer survivors and providing them with complimentary tickets and commemorative pink T-shirts.

Family and friends will be given the opportunity to purchase specially priced upper level tickets for just $15, with $5 from each ticket purchased being donated to benefit breast cancer research at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Fans interested in supporting the cause can take advantage of the same $15 upper level ticket offer, with $5 going to Karmanos. For more information, visit Pistons.com or call the Palace Box Office at 248-377-0100. The series continues with a military salute in support of veterans as part of the Nov. 11 Veterans’ Day home game vs. Charlotte.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091021/B ... on-Pistons

ESPN experts weigh in on Pistons
Ten ESPN NBA panelists, including Free Press alum Jemele HIll and former Fab Fiver Jalen Rose, went public with their season previews-by-team.

Only three of the experts, HIll, John Hollinger and Chad Ford, have the Pistons making the playoffs. Ford has the team finishing the highest of any of his cohorts, sixth. "The Pistons didn't hit the free-agent jackpot, but they'll be better than you think. Gordon can take over a game and Villanueva is a younger, less-volatile version of Sheed. However, Detroit's lack of size and toughness will hurt," Ford wrote.

The average predicted finish for the PIstons in the East was 8.7.

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http://twitter.com/detroit_pistons

DetNews: Pistons waive ex-Michigan star Maceo Baston: The Pistons have waived former Michigan star forward Maceo B... http://twurl.nl/s6s3za

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http://twitter.com/detroit_pistons

DetNews: Chaotic scenes old hat to Maceo Baston: During Maceo Baston's first practice in Italy after he signed wit... http://twurl.nl/aduy66