DET vs CHA 7:30pm

[Pharaoh]

Unfortunately, I think we are going to have a lot of nights like this. Guys made some great plays, but we didn't really execute anything resembling a real offense. We got the occasional pick and roll going, but that was still just dependent on a guy making a play. Nothing was really coming just off the flow of the offense. Defensively, it was the same thing. Dre locked in for a couple quarters and looked beastly. However, when he wasn't dominating the play, the overall team defense had lots of breakdowns. This group has talent, but they still aren't playing team basketball consistently.

It doesn't help that Reggie was getting killed by Lin on a lot of plays and basically shot himself out of the game.

Lin is the best bargain contract out right now, we should've gotten him.

Our biggest mistake this offseason was holding on to Jennings

We are now waiting for a player to get healthy so he can play himself back into the rotation, all while being on a contract year

We should have found a way to move or release him and sign a back up PG that was here for the long run

Giving Lin or another quality back up PG a nice fat two year contract would have been perfect for our team, now we are stuck with a terrible back up PG line up of Steve Blake / Dinwiddie / injured Jennings

I think we can see now that Meeks, Martin, Jennings, Dinwiddie, and possibly Joel Anthony all could be moved sooner rather than later. Hopefully we can parlay those contracts into a back up PG and another few bench players. Our rotation should be the following no questions asked. I dont want to see Meeks or Dinwiddie on the floor anymore they SUCK

Reggie / -----
KCP / Bullock
Morris / Johnson
Ilyasova / Tolliver
Dre / Baynes

The fact you're talking about adding to our BENCH is the important piece here.

SVG has been in control of the team for less than 2 years and he's obviously fixed quite a few issues!

Long term we need a PF, PG & a swing man (unless Bullock is that guy). 3 holes to fill - that's a massive improvement over what we had when Stan arrived!

Dre 33/Baynes 15 = awesome

Illy 24/Morris 14/Tolly 10 = fine

Morris 14/Stan 28/KCP 6 = awesome

KCP 24/Bullock 14/RJ 10 = awesome

RJ 24/BJ 24 = awesome

People gotta be patient!

IMO we are still in the developmental stage...after this coming season we'll know where we stand

[Todd3]

Jeremy Lin is crap what are people talking about

[russkopp]

Jeremy Lin is crap what are people talking about

That he made Reggie look like a scrub on both ends of the floor is what they're talking about. Only 1 game though.

[russkopp]

Prediction time:

If Bullock outplays Meeks this season and Jennings is back by X-mas, and shows he's healthy, those two get moved for SOMETHING at the deadline. Another Ersan like trade where a team just wants to get rid of someone and/or cap space. Hopefully someone more long term than Joe Johnson but...

[Todd3]

Prediction time:

If Bullock outplays Meeks this season and Jennings is back by X-mas, and shows he's healthy, those two get moved for SOMETHING at the deadline. Another Ersan like trade where a team just wants to get rid of someone and/or cap space. Hopefully someone more long term than Joe Johnson but...

Agree on Meeks, but I think we really need more ball handlers so not sure moving Jennings will be ideal, as not likely to get a better ball handler in return.

I know he is exp contract and you want to get something for him, but if he comes back the same player and fits and we play great with him, we may want to resign him. Perhaps that was the part of the motivation behind Drummond delaying his ext, so that we would have money to resign his Brandon

[need4detroit]

Dre should faceup more. If only he had a semi-reliable jumper to keep defenses honest, because he has speed most centers cannot keep up with.

I don't even know why most centers nowadays don't even try to have a short-range or even mid range jumper. It's such a lost art. Gone are the days of the bang it down low for majority of the quarters or at the very least, dominant ones.

Been saying this for years. On offense he's naturally more of a face up 4.

[Todd3]

Jeremy Lin is crap what are people talking about

That he made Reggie look like a scrub on both ends of the floor is what they're talking about. Only 1 game though.

I saw Jackson outplaying himself last night and just making a bunch of poor decisions, not anything Lin was doing to him. On the other end he was getting hit with screens all night, which was what was allowing Lin to get a lot of his good looks, not that he was taking Reggie to school or something. Not excusing Reggie's bad game but didn't see it play the way you did.

Stan is trying to rebuild the bad boys and change the Charlie V/Austin Daye type teams. Soft as butter Lin would not have fit what they want imo.

[DBC10]

Dre should faceup more. If only he had a semi-reliable jumper to keep defenses honest, because he has speed most centers cannot keep up with.

I don't even know why most centers nowadays don't even try to have a short-range or even mid range jumper. It's such a lost art. Gone are the days of the bang it down low for majority of the quarters or at the very least, dominant ones.

Been saying this for years. On offense he's naturally more of a face up 4.

Honestly, if he had a short jumper and tightened his handles more, he'd be near the area of Anthony Davis on the offensive end. Aka a superstar level. I wish more bigs learned to actually shoot so it actually opens their games more instead of the traditional and archaic bang down low only mode. I can't even remember a recent team that won a chip with a superstar center in their prime, so I don't know why teams think that bigmen should still subscribe to the post up only philosophy of the 80s-90s.

If the game is evolving with the way it is with shooting, pace and space, then all the positions in a starting lineup should evolve too, including centers. That's why I love bigmen like Vucevic and Marc Gasol. Even Boogie Cousins is evolving now.

[DetroitPistons]

Jeremy Lin is crap what are people talking about

Duh, any time a player has a bad game they are a scrub and every time a player has a good game they are an allstar. That's how realGM works. where have you been?

[DetroitPistons]

Prediction time:

If Bullock outplays Meeks this season and Jennings is back by X-mas, and shows he's healthy, those two get moved for SOMETHING at the deadline. Another Ersan like trade where a team just wants to get rid of someone and/or cap space. Hopefully someone more long term than Joe Johnson but...

I hope Meeks plays really well to boost his value if we want to trade him but I'm fine giving him another year to prove himself. If Bullock is the real deal and makes him expendable then I think packaging him with Jennings, Illy, and picks would be a good move but only if we are getting our PF of the future out of it. If Jennings comes back and plays even close to how he did last year he will be HUGE for us and I would want to keep him, again unless we can secure a starting PF out of it.

[DetroitPistons]

Dre should faceup more. If only he had a semi-reliable jumper to keep defenses honest, because he has speed most centers cannot keep up with.

I don't even know why most centers nowadays don't even try to have a short-range or even mid range jumper. It's such a lost art. Gone are the days of the bang it down low for majority of the quarters or at the very least, dominant ones.

Been saying this for years. On offense he's naturally more of a face up 4.

Honestly, if he had a short jumper and tightened his handles more, he'd be near the area of Anthony Davis on the offensive end. Aka a superstar level. I wish more bigs learned to actually shoot so it actually opens their games more instead of the traditional and archaic bang down low only mode. I can't even remember a recent team that won a chip with a superstar center in their prime, so I don't know why teams think that bigmen should still subscribe to the post up only philosophy of the 80s-90s.

If the game is evolving with the way it is with shooting, pace and space, then all the positions in a starting lineup should evolve too, including centers. That's why I love bigmen like Vucevic and Marc Gasol. Even Boogie Cousins is evolving now.

Drummond would be no where near Davis on the offensive end even if he had a short jumper and tighter handles, which btw take quite awhile to develop. That's something I don't see Dre doing. Getting him to get his back to the basket instead of taking fadeaway jumpers was a huge, and beneficial, transformation for his game. Why go back? Especially when his back to the basket game is really starting to show promise. He will be a legitimate threat down there by the end of this season or next.

Also, I don't think we should ignore the low post game just because the NBA has changed over the past decade. I view the low post game like the running game in football. Sometimes you see average results with it and it isn't as pretty as throwing bombs all game long but it's absolutely necessary. Having Dre draw major attention down low is going to open up our offense drastically just by the attention he draws, not to mention if he can actually be a potent scorer down there. It's also similar to Rasheed's ability to stretch the floor. People got upset quite often, and rightfully so sometimes, when he would take some bad 3's but his real effectiveness didn't necessarily come from him making the actual shot but his ability to spread the defense to open up other scoring opportunities.

[DetroitPistons]

Unfortunately, I think we are going to have a lot of nights like this. Guys made some great plays, but we didn't really execute anything resembling a real offense. We got the occasional pick and roll going, but that was still just dependent on a guy making a play. Nothing was really coming just off the flow of the offense. Defensively, it was the same thing. Dre locked in for a couple quarters and looked beastly. However, when he wasn't dominating the play, the overall team defense had lots of breakdowns. This group has talent, but they still aren't playing team basketball consistently.

Remember how smooth we looked at the end of last season when RJ finally figured it out? I see no reason to doubt that will happen again, especially with the upgraded overall talent, fit, and versatility this year, which brings me to my next point. I'm not going to expect any team to look like a well oiled machine in preseason, especially with all of these new pieces. I've been encouraged by what I've seen so far. Morris, SJ, and Ily have been inconsistent but all look like they will be quality contributors for us this season. Sure, the overall defense and offense has looked stagnant at times but it has also looked great at other times. I expect some growing pains with our rough early schedule and then I expect us to go on a decent run after that. This team will be fine.

[DBC10]

Been saying this for years. On offense he's naturally more of a face up 4.

Honestly, if he had a short jumper and tightened his handles more, he'd be near the area of Anthony Davis on the offensive end. Aka a superstar level. I wish more bigs learned to actually shoot so it actually opens their games more instead of the traditional and archaic bang down low only mode. I can't even remember a recent team that won a chip with a superstar center in their prime, so I don't know why teams think that bigmen should still subscribe to the post up only philosophy of the 80s-90s.

If the game is evolving with the way it is with shooting, pace and space, then all the positions in a starting lineup should evolve too, including centers. That's why I love bigmen like Vucevic and Marc Gasol. Even Boogie Cousins is evolving now.

Drummond would be no where near Davis on the offensive end even if he had a short jumper and tighter handles, which btw take quite awhile to develop. That's something I don't see Dre doing. Getting him to get his back to the basket instead of taking fadeaway jumpers was a huge, and beneficial, transformation for his game. Why go back? Especially when his back to the basket game is really starting to show promise. He will be a legitimate threat down there by the end of this season or next.

Also, I don't think we should ignore the low post game just because the NBA has changed over the past decade. I view the low post game like the running game in football. Sometimes you see average results with it and it isn't as pretty as throwing bombs all game long but it's absolutely necessary. Having Dre draw major attention down low is going to open up our offense drastically just by the attention he draws, not to mention if he can actually be a potent scorer down there. It's also similar to Rasheed's ability to stretch the floor. People got upset quite often, and rightfully so sometimes, when he would take some bad 3's but his real effectiveness didn't necessarily come from him making the actual shot but his ability to spread the defense to open up other scoring opportunities.

Don't mind me. I'm just ranting on the state of bigmen nowdays. They need to have a jumper to survive, since the low post game is slowly being phased out for more emphasis on pace and cuts, and a ball-flowing/passing offense. I mean, that's basically how the Spurs (they barely posted up an old Duncan I believe) won, the Heat won, and now the Warriors. My favorite emphasis being the Warriors.

I'm not going to say we need to necessarily eliminate the low post, just put less emphasis on future promising young bigmen in the future. Sure the low post game is required when the game does slow down a bit, but bigmen nowdays struggle mightily once they get doubled down there since:
A.) They're not Shaq or Hakeem
B.) Teams play a smarter defense of cutting off the pass out the double now

Dre has come a long way since his start as a rookie, but I can't help but feel that the organization also missed out on a chance to develop more of a faceup/triple threat game with him too. Similar to how Boogie is being used now as a pseudo PF and Center.

[Maker_84]

team looks like they're going to suck again. Jennings needs to get healthy if they wanna compete for a playoff spot

[Blkbrd671]

I am really beginning to feel real good about this team. We have had 4 straight threads were outside posters have come by all worried about our team.

[Billl]

Unfortunately, I think we are going to have a lot of nights like this. Guys made some great plays, but we didn't really execute anything resembling a real offense. We got the occasional pick and roll going, but that was still just dependent on a guy making a play. Nothing was really coming just off the flow of the offense. Defensively, it was the same thing. Dre locked in for a couple quarters and looked beastly. However, when he wasn't dominating the play, the overall team defense had lots of breakdowns. This group has talent, but they still aren't playing team basketball consistently.

Remember how smooth we looked at the end of last season when RJ finally figured it out? I see no reason to doubt that will happen again, especially with the upgraded overall talent, fit, and versatility this year, which brings me to my next point. I'm not going to expect any team to look like a well oiled machine in preseason, especially with all of these new pieces. I've been encouraged by what I've seen so far. Morris, SJ, and Ily have been inconsistent but all look like they will be quality contributors for us this season. Sure, the overall defense and offense has looked stagnant at times but it has also looked great at other times. I expect some growing pains with our rough early schedule and then I expect us to go on a decent run after that. This team will be fine.

Not sure what team you were watching, but the pistons were 4-6 in their last 10.

I don't doubt this team will go on runs. We've got enough talent and shooters that when guys are making plays, then everything looks great. The problem is that unless you have lebron on your team "go make plays" doesn't win consistently. The only way you get over that is if if every member of the team commits to running the offense and defense every time down the court. They obviously haven't collectively committed to doing that and it shows on both ends. It's the preseason, so if you miss some reads or make the wrong cut etc, that is totally understandable. If you pound the ball for 20 straight possessions , then something more is going wrong. Maybe they will get there eventually, but it looks like they have a long way to do right now.

[Eoghan]

This is the first Pistons game I've been able to watch from start to finish and I liked what I saw. Drummond's offense is not great but it's getting somewhere. Honestly it's more effective than Jefferson's overrated post game right now.

Needed more Bullock, especially down the stretch to protect the lead. He definitely deserves minutes.

I like Baynes as a backup center, that's an underrated get for Detroit. He provides a nice physical presence so between him and Dre the other team's centers are going to feel it the next morning.

Back up PG is an issue right now. Get well soon, Jennings and Blake.

Stanley Johnson is a nice looking player, man. He looks really coachable but also like the game comes naturally to him which is a good combination.

I have a good feeling that Detroit is on the upswing and should rise above a team of Charlotte's caliber if they play up to their potential.

charlotte's caliber???????? hardly think Charlotte sets any bar

I'm talking about that 8-12 area of the East where teams constantly jockey for the last two spots of the playoffs. Charlotte and Detroit have been in that limbo for awhile now and I think Detroit noticeably separates themselves from that group this year. I think there is enough talent and good coaching on Detroit that everything doesn't have to break right for them to get to the playoffs for the foreseeable future.