'Nasty News - Traversing Time & Space' Vol: 68

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/video/games/pistons/ ... index.html

Cavaliers vs. Pistons
LeBron James scores 24 of his 29 points in the second half as the Cavaliers rally past the Pistons for a 113-101 victory.

Video in the link above^.

[nasty daddy]

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

Your take: Most MLive.com readers don't have an issue with Bynum's 20th assist
Last Saturday, I critically analyzed Will Bynum's 20-assist performance against the Washington Wizards.I'm quick to admit, the tone of the post was probably a bit harsh. I compared Bynum's accomplishment to the prior shenanigans of Anthony Bowie and Ricky Davis, without properly establishing my opinion that Bynum's achievement was not on the same dastardly level. I also failed to properly praise Bynum's performance. In the post, I simply wrote, "Bynum had one of the best nights of his career, dazzling the Palace crowd with a vast array of passing skills." That brief summary hardly did justice to Bynum's night. He performed the point guard duties masterfully, always looking to pass before shoot all night. In fact, Bynum didn't attempt his first field goal until the closing seconds of the first half. By that time, he had already racked up ten assists, setting up his teammates with crisp passes on the perimeter and in the lane. Still, I stand by my intended initial assessment that the 20th assist was unnecessary. I simply cannot be convinced that any personal accomplishment is worth pursuing, no matter how rare, when you hold a big lead in the closing seconds a game. Maybe my opinion is just an old-fashioned ideal.

I wasn't entirely alone in my sentiments. MLive.com reader rob wrote: I don't think i have ever seen a basketball team under any circumstances shoot with under 24 seconds up 10 or more. I think this shows the lack of control kuester has as reported earlier. Does anyone think larry brown or greg popavich would of been fine with this? Reader flies10101 wrote: The voice of reason. Wow. I like these about last night articles its always a different perspective. And c'mon. Bynum's 20th assist was a joke. It was. You can't say it wasn't. Ben Gordon sinks the shot with 3 seconds left and the Pistons up by 12! It was unnecessary and unsportsmanlike, especially when your talking about rubbing it in the Wizards face. Those opinions were definitely in the minority. The overwhelming majority disagreed with my assessment. MLive.com commenter wingspan was one of the first readers to point out my failure to differentiate Bynum from Bowie and Davis. Unlike the Bowie and Davis situations, this was a whole team acting together. Call them all shmucks if you want, but I want to point out that this time there was nothing like a self-serving timeout or weaksauce artificial play. Who cares if the last 9 seconds of the game were meaningless? The whole game was meaningless, except for this amazing accomplishment. Twenty is just such a satisfyingly round number! Reader petosegan agreed: You can sit there alone with your definition of classless, and the rest of us can appreciate last night for what it was--a milestone achievement for someone who deserved it within the context of the game. No timeouts. No shenanigans. Just a great accomplishment, pure and simple. In fact, most of the comments on the post took a similar stance.

The icing on my criticism cake came when Brian Packey, from DetroitBadBoys, dedicated a full post taking me to task. I must admit, the title of the post, Will Bynum ain't no schmuck, had me at "Hello." March 14, DetroitBadBoys.com: Personally, I have no problem with last second, meaningless shot attempts, unless they are emphatic, backboard slapping dunks. I don't think I've ever felt uneasy about a player, on the winning or losing team, throwing up a last second shot just for the hell of it. I'm even more at ease in this case because the Wizards appeared to actually defend it, somewhat, and Gordon still had to hit a shot he hasn't been making this season.For those holding out for a blood, or even a blog feud between the Full-Court Press and Detroit Bad Boys, you'll have to get waiting. Packey and I (and hopefully my readers and I) are content to agree to disagree on this issue.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.freep.com/article/20100317/S ... the-Ground

Pistons' Hooper does 'Pants on the Ground'
It hasn't been a fun season for the Detroit Pistons, but their mascot, Hooper, hasn't lost his sense of humor.

Check out the horsey version of "Pants on the Ground," the groan-inducing hit from this season's "American Idol":

It's reminiscent of Hooper's parody of Beyonce's music video for "Single Ladies" last season. Ah, what the heck, here's that one, too.

Video in the link above^.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

Q&A with Joe Dumars - Part I
Pistons president Joe Dumars sat down with Pistons.com editor Keith Langlois on Wednesday afternoon to talk about the season so far and the future of the team. Here’s Part I of their conversation:

KEITH LANGLOIS: The last time we talked in this forum, you said all the injuries had allowed you to evaluate a lot of individual players but had hampered your ability to evaluate the team. The injury cloud didn’t lift for very long, but with the season down to 14 games are you any closer to feeling like you’ll go into the off-season with a handle on what type of team this was or could have been?

JOE DUMARS: I guess all I can say is we’ve had our full complement of players for 11 games. We’re 7-4 in those 11 games. We’ve had some pretty good wins. From a team perspective, no, we never got a full handle on what this season could be. But I’ll go back to this. From an individual perspective, we did get a handle on some things. And what you ended up getting to see is some of the positive attributes that some of these guys bring and some of the flaws in guys’ games. So I’ll continue to say that it was a good year to evaluate individuals, not a good year to evaluate as a team what we could accomplish.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: The ankles and the knees and the backs are one thing, but the Rodney Stuckey incident a few weeks ago took things to a whole new level. We’ve been told he’s seen specialists who have ruled out issues with the heart or anything that seems to be serious or life-threatening, but has anyone offered any opinion to you regarding what the cause might have been for this and a similar incident last year?

JD: No, we never got any definitive cause. In a situation like this, what you do, from a medical standpoint, you want to be able to rule out as much as possible and that’s what we were able to do. But a definitive cause was truly never given. All we got were the negative results of multiple tests of anything showing up. That’s as far as we can go with it.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: I know he’s seen many top specialists. Has anyone expressed any concern about giving him medical clearance until a cause is determined?

JD: From that standpoint, that’s where the HIPAA laws come in and you have to stop right there. All I can is say he’s been tested, come back negative and you have to stop right there. You go past that and you’re on shaky ground.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: Let’s talk about Ben Gordon for a minute. He played extremely well early in the season, until that first ankle injury. We know he’s 26, we know his best years should still be ahead of him. He’s been consistent in scoring and field-goal percentage throughout his first five years. How do you evaluate Ben and are your expectations for him any different than when you signed him last July?

JD: I think the first 25 games, it was very evident of who we all felt like he could be here. I thought he played exceptional the first 25 games. I think of all the guys on the team, with his personal injury and the injuries to the team, guys in and out of the lineup, it probably affected him more than any other guy on the team. After the first 25 games, it just appeared that from his injury and all the other injuries, he’s never been able to find that same rhythm he found in the first 25 games. But as you said, we’ve watched this guy. This guy has a body of work for the past five years. So it’s not like this guy had one or two good years. He had five incredible years of work. I don’t think you discard that body of work because of an injury-plagued season. You have to take it for what it is and try to evaluate it as much as you can, but also not forget that the guy does have a body of work that has spoken well in this league.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: I’ll ask you much the same question about Charlie Villanueva. His body of work wasn’t quite as impressive as Ben’s coming in. But he had some nice moments early, too. In December, before the plantar fasciitis, he was doing some inside scoring for you and has been up and down since. So the same question about him – your evaluation and your expectation going forward.

JD: I talked to Charlie when he first got injured and about a week or so after he got injured I asked him how he was doing and he said, Joe, when I step on the floor, I’m not 100 percent. I’m laboring. Some nights it’s just really tough getting up and the down the floor. Can’t really push off and explode and be as aggressive as I want to be. But I can still get out there and play. And he said I just don’t think you’re going to see me at my best right now because I can’t physically do everything I’m used to doing. I give Charlie a lot of credit for staying with it, because of all the guys, in terms of injuries, he’s probably missed the fewest games. A lot of nights, Charlie’s been hurting out there. He’s laboring up and down the court, yet he’s staying out on the floor. From that standpoint, just the fact the guy was hurting, that plantar fasciitis, you’ve seen guys shut it down with that. The fact he stayed out there a lot of nights when he probably shouldn’t have been playing, I give him a lot of credit for that.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: As you said, he’s missed the fewest games, but he’s had a series of nagging injuries – the hamstring coming out of training camp, the broken nose, the plantar fasciitis, the back spasms.

JD: That’s what I’m saying – he’s had all of that, and probably missed the fewest games.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: You haven’t been in this position since your first year as president, and by that I mean by the two-thirds point of the season it had become pretty clear that you weren’t going to be in the playoffs. Has that changed at all the way you spend your time at this time of year?

JD: Not so much my time, but what I do with my time. My time is the same, but what I do with my time. Where in the past, I was evaluating our team and how we were going to do first round, second round, third round. Now I’m evaluating who makes the cut going forward with us – who we can continue to build with, who we probably have to part ways with. Where before, in the past, during the middle of March, I wasn’t thinking about that. There was never a reason to go down that road. It was strictly about how deep we can get, do we have a team that can win a championship? Now it’s more evaluation of personnel and of team.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/dumars_100317.html

KL: I know even in the all the playoff seasons, you would be getting out to see some of the top college players. Have you done more of that this year?

JD: Yeah, I’ve done a little bit more of that and the type of player I’m seeing is a little bit different, too. For almost a decade, I was going out to see late first-round picks and late second-round picks. This is the first time I can remember going out and seeing lottery picks. I’ve basically gone out and seen all the potential lottery picks now and I’ve never done that in a decade. Seen some good college games. First time I’ve gone to some of these arenas and seen some of these teams play. I’ve never seen them play before. I’m like, OK, wow.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 00317.html

No Rush to Judgment
In a perfect world, the Ben Gordon who started the season carrying the Pistons offensively for long stretches wouldn’t have turned his ankle back in November, rushed his return, perhaps popped a groin muscle because of it and spent the rest of the season groping for the form that made him a consistent 20-point scorer and 40 percent 3-point shooter over his first five seasons. In that same perfect world, Charlie Villanueva wouldn’t have pulled a hamstring and missed most of training camp, had his nose broken in November, been afflicted with plantar fasciitis in December and fought back spasms in January. If he were an automobile, Charlie V would be declared as totaled by the insurance company, yet he’s managed to miss fewer games than Gordon, Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton, Will Bynum, Ben Wallace and Rodney Stuckey. It’s been that kind of year, where evaluating the team and even individuals through the lens of constant injury and disruption has been a daily reality and a formidable challenge. So Joe Dumars isn’t paying much heed to the fantasy experts condemning his forays into free agency last summer. “I thought (Gordon) played exceptional the first 25 games,” Dumars said Wednesday when we sat down for a Q&A now running in three parts on Pistons.com. “I think of all the guys on the team, with his personal injury and the injuries to the team, guys in and out of the lineup, it probably affected him more than any other guy on the team. But … this guy has a body of work for the past five years.

He had five incredible years of work. I don’t think you discard that body of work because of an injury-plagued season.” Dumars has come to quietly appreciate what Villanueva, too, has endured this season. In late November and early December, Villanueva was playing at a high level, giving the Pistons not only the perimeter shooting that attracted them but the ability to score in a variety of ways inside, too. Then the plantar fasciitis struck, an injury that forced the Chicago Bulls to shut down Joakim Noah before the All-Star break and again for three weeks earlier this month, and Jonas Jerebko established himself as an irreplaceable part and Villanueva, never fully healthy, has struggled just as Gordon has to find a comfortable niche. “About a week or so after he got injured, I asked him how he was doing and he said, Joe, when I step on the floor, I’m not 100 percent. I’m laboring. Some nights it’s just really tough getting up and down the floor. Can’t really push off and explode and be as aggressive as I want to be. But I can still get out there and play. And he said I just don’t think you’re going to see me at my best right now. … I give Charlie a lot of credit for staying with it.”

Most of Part I of the Q&A deals with Gordon, Villanueva, the Rodney Stuckey incident and how the reality of missing the playoffs has affected how Dumars has spent his time in recent weeks. In Part II, the discussion turns to the play of last June’s three draft choices, the prospects of getting help in this year’s lottery, the groundwork for future trades that might have been laid at this year’s trade deadline, and the recent spike in production from Jason Maxiell. In Part III, we talk about the futures of pending free agents Ben Wallace and Will Bynum, the way John Kuester has dealt with a season filled with adversity, how losing has perhaps helped bring a certain clarity to the Pistons’ current situation, and the value of the season’s final 14 games.

[nasty daddy]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop

ESPN's Stats and Info Department tells us that only two active players have won both an NBA and an NCAA title: Rip Hamilton and Nazr Mohammed.

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

How Cavalier – Cleveland over Detroit
How can the Pistons get totally decimated and embarrassed one night and then take the best team in the NBA down to the wire. The Pistons without Rodney Stuckey and Ben Wallace did just that, thanks to a tremendous effort from Tayshaun Prince, who nearly recoded a triple-double. It was just too bad LeBron did, in fact Lebron’s triple-double was the first recorded in the palace since 2004. The 113-101 final score does not tell the tale of this game. This one could have went either way.

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

Key Points:
Worst officiating I have seen since…well I can’t remember. It’s one thing to give LeBron a continuation on a foul he jogged in from about the free throw line, but to miss this blatant goal-tending when the Pistons were in the ball game was horrific. LeBron gets away with murder.

Video in the link above^.

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

“They know it’s a bad call,” Pistons coach John Kuester said. “They know that. It’s a shame. That was a momentum-breaker. So we had it going, but, hey, that’s the NBA.” via NBA.com

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

I caught Will’s post game interview after he was told the refs admitted it was a goal-tend, his answer “it’s too late now.” Yeah it is…

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

It’s enough that you have to deal with probably the worst fans in the world when the Cavs come to town, you also have to deal with the cockiness of the team, especially Mo Williams at the end of the game when he hit those late threes, he was jumping around like a fifth grade girl.

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

It’s enough that you have to deal with probably the worst fans in the world when the Cavs come to town, you also have to deal with the cockiness of the team, especially Mo Williams at the end of the game when he hit those late threes, he was jumping around like a fifth grade girl.

[nasty daddy]

http://need4sheed.com/2010/03/how-caval ... troit.html

Give it up for Jason Maxiell who was eating Ohio babies all night long. His steal on LeBron for the dunk what a highlight but his late game basket and blocks help this team be competitive all game long. Jason with another double-double, 10 points, 15 boards, a steal and 2 blocked shots. It’s official he’s back.