'Nasty News - Traversing Time & Space' Vol: 58

[nasty daddy]

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Michael (Modiin, Israel): We’re still following our Detroit Pistons from Israel. My question is what’s up with Kwame Brown? He didn’t play in the last two games and Ben Wallace played 43 minutes against Utah.

Langlois: Chris Wilcox and Jason Maxiell were the big men John Kuester used off his bench in the last two games of the West Coast trip and he said it was a matchups-based decision. Kuester had also mentioned a few times recently that Wilcox had been showing him more in practice. I think it’s probable that Wilcox hurt himself starting in preseason by not picking up Kuester’s defensive rotations quite as quickly as his other big men, his playing time became sparse and his contributions inconsistent. If he doesn’t compromise the defensive system, Wilcox has an element of size and athleticism that will come in very handy for the Pistons. We saw signs of that especially against Utah. But Cleveland and the Clippers are coming to town next. Especially if Shaq plays, Cleveland, which also has Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and the Clippers with Chris Kaman and DeAndre Jordan, perhaps, should mean Kwame is back in the rotation.

[nasty daddy]

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Kobina (Baton Rouge, La.): When I was 24, I was able to add 35 pounds of muscle in a matter of months after a lifetime of skinniness. Now even Amir Johnson is looking much bigger and stronger. So how old is Austin Daye and do you see him being able to add at least another 40 pounds to his frame?

Langlois: He’s put on about 10 since last May when he checked in at 192 at the Chicago predraft camp. I don’t know that he’ll ever pack on 40 pounds above what you see now – and I don’t know that the Pistons would want him to unless he was able to put it on gradually and naturally with no affect on his quickness and agility. Guys like Reggie Miller and Tayshaun Prince never really added much bulk over the course of their careers, but they did add functional strength. That’s more the goal for Daye than setting a weight target.

[nasty daddy]

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Cindy (Spring Lake, Mich.): I just want this team to know that, even though they aren’t winning, I’m really loving what I’m seeing. It’s exciting watching these guys play. They really put a lot of heart into it and it’s a nice change of pace.

Langlois: Thanks for the note, Cindy. I chose yours as a representative example of many such Mailbag entries I’ve received of late. It’s a fun team to watch this year. Winning is always the most fun, of course, but I sense what fans are seeing in this team is the promise of a future with not just young talent but players who seem to want nothing more than to be part of a winning team. It’s going to be intriguing to see how it all comes together as the season unfolds in what’s looking like a wild playoff chase in the East.

[nasty daddy]

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Jim (Redford, Mich.): The question I’ve started to ask myself is, Who's roles will be diminished when Rip and Tayshaun return to action? A few guys have emerged as players in their absence and there are only so many minutes to go around.

Langlois: A problem John Kuester is no doubt dying to experience, Jim. We’ll have to see how it plays out. You have to assume that Hamilton and Prince, once they’re back, are going to get their 30-plus minutes every night. But I suspect Kuester’s temptation to push them, Ben Gordon and Rodney Stuckey to 40 minutes will be eased by the faith he must now have in players like Will Bynum, Jonas Jerebko and Austin Daye to handle broader roles than he might have initially intended for them. If I had to choose one lasting impact of the injury adjustments, I’d say Kuester will be more apt to throw Jerebko into games as Prince’s backup at small forward because of the way he’s held up defensively against a wide variety of scorers.

[nasty daddy]

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Johnny (Sterling Heights, Mich.): Of the class of 2010 big men free agents, I found quite a few who could fit with our team and become another piece, if not “the piece.” Out of David Lee, Jermaine O’Neal, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Carlos Boozer and Brendan Haywood, to name a few, which one would fit best?

Langlois: Depends what the rest of the puzzle looks like. Does Kwame Brown come back? If not, then a big body like Brendan Haywood would be ideal. But is the mid-level exception enough to land him? I think it will be, but perhaps not. You have to start with the premise that Charlie Villanueva is the one frontcourt, long-term fixture, so whoever you add up front really has to fit with Charlie V. That means somebody who’s a proven defender and has enough power to guard the gold standard of Eastern big men right now, Dwight Howard. Marcus Camby sounds like a potential fit, but he’ll be 35 in March. The MLE isn’t going to be enough to land Boozer, unless he has another injury-ravaged season that throws his durability into further question, and it isn’t very likely to be enough to get Lee, either. These aren’t easy decisions. But who the Pistons can add with the mid-level exception next summer probably will be their single biggest means of improvement for 2010-11.

[nasty daddy]

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Brian (Chicago): I read an interesting article on Hoopsworld.com where Kobe said he likes Ben Gordon and he reminds him of Joe Dumars. I thought that was interesting since most people always think of Gordon as the second “Microwave.” What do you think about the Gordon-Dumars comparison? I kind of look at Bynum as being more of the “Microwave” style player.

Langlois: I don’t know that I’ve ever seen another player that I’d compare to Vinnie Johnson, who was uniquely put together and had an unorthodox game. In the way Bynum can come into a game and get hot immediately – the reason Danny Ainge dubbed Vinnie “The Microwave” in the first place – yeah, there are similarities. The one similarity I can see with Gordon and Dumars is the shared ability to make incredible, highlight-reel, high-degree-of-difficulty jump shots.

[nasty daddy]

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Jerry (Copenhagen, Denmark): How can it be fair that one team has a back-to-back with travel, while the other team doesn’t? Shouldn’t it be the same for both teams?

Langlois: In a perfect world, sure, but it’s never going to work out that way all the time when you’ve got to fit 82 games into a schedule and many teams are either sharing their building with another pro team, or book other music and entertainment acts into the building, and request of the league as many attractive weekend dates as possible. The best you hope for is that it eventually evens out over the course of a season. The Pistons just came off a week where they had three games (Dallas, Portland, Phoenix) where they played the previous night and traveled to play a team that was off and stationary. That’s highly unusual for such a short period of time. The schedule maker owes them one – or two.

[nasty daddy]

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Benjamin (Salt Lake City): It seems Anthony Randolph is in Don Nelson’s doghouse. If there is a bad relationship there, is there any way they might look to trade him? What would it take to get him and would there be any interest with the Pistons?

Langlois: If Golden State makes it known that Randolph can be had, there will be 29 teams with interest. Randolph has one of the highest ceilings of any young player in the NBA. It was widely reported last February that the Warriors could have worked out a trade for Amare Stoudemire had they been willing to include Randolph in the compensation package. Golden State’s franchise is dysfunctional enough that there’s certainly a chance Randolph will be traded, but it’s not easy to configure a package that would work for either side. If the Warriors trade Randolph, they’re going to want a young star in return – a la Stoudemire. The Pistons don’t have that to offer.

[nasty daddy]

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Jason (Holland, Mich.): When Joe Dumars traded Chauncey Billups, I believe the reasoning he gave was Iverson’s expiring contract would give him cap space for free agency. Now with the signings of Gordon and Villanueva, what exactly is our cap room for next off-season? Can we realistically go after Bosh or any other superstar?

Langlois: No. The Pistons will be limited to their use of the mid-level and biannual exceptions next summer. But here’s what fans should know: Even if they hadn’t signed Gordon and Villanueva, it’s very doubtful they would have had enough cap room to bid on a player like Bosh. With their contract obligations to Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Jason Maxiell, Rodney Stuckey, Austin Daye and Chris Wilcox (assuming he exercises his player option), the Pistons are on the hook for roughly $35 million next season. Throw in the contracts of Jonas Jerebko and DaJuan Summers and add another $2 million, estimated. They’ll need to keep a cap hold for Will Bynum as a restricted free agent. And they’ll have to add three more minimum-salary spots to get to the 12 roster spots needed for calculating a team’s cap room. You’re basically at $40 million heading into July 1 when the NBA sets the salary cap for the coming season. There are estimates the cap could come down to as low as $50 million. For the sake of planning, most are using a figure of $53 million. That means the Pistons would have about $13 million or so to offer a premium free agent, when a player like Bosh will be expecting a maximum contract, which should start at something above $16 million. So that’s a pretty important point. Again, even if the Pistons HAD NOT spent the cap space they gained via the Billups-Iverson trade, the combination of built-in salary escalators in the contracts of players like Prince and Hamilton plus the certain reduction in next year’s salary cap would still have prevented the Pistons from bidding on the 2010 elite free agents.

[nasty daddy]

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Mannie (Toronto): To break it down, the Billups trade wound up as Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess for Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva and Ben Wallace. Was it a good move? I say yes. Villanueva is outplaying Wallace, mainly because he’s younger and Wallace is nearing the end. I’d rather have Charlie V now and for five years than Wallace for one or two more years. Billups is still playing at a high level, but Gordon is playing out of his mind and, again, he’s younger. Lastly, believe it or not, Ben Wallace has been outplaying McDyess. His rebounding and shot-blocking has allowed us to be a good defensive team. So, overall, I give the trade an A for long-term potential. We just need Rip and Tay back to see what we can do this year.

Langlois: It’s interesting, Mannie, that the Pistons played at Phoenix last night, where the Suns remind me of the Pistons of the past few years. Even though the Suns are winning a lot of games, the overwhelming sense about that team is that they aren’t going to be a serious contender once the postseason rolls around. As difficult as the decision would have been, you can argue that the Suns should have made the move the Pistons made – trade their aging, veteran point guard, Steve Nash, to try to use him as the tool for rebuilding with a younger team.

[nasty daddy]

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Jacob (Denton, Texas): The Bucks are off to a surprisingly good starter, but I’ve noticed their schedule has been fairly easy. Do you think they’ll be able to keep it up?

Langlois: They’re not going to continue at a .727 winning percentage, Jacob, but the Bucks look like they’re going to be another team the Pistons are going to have to fend off to nab a playoff spot – and I didn’t see that coming. Brandon Jennings has given the Bucks a tremendous offensive lift and Scott Skiles has them playing good defense. They’ll miss Andrew Bogut, probably out for at least another month, and you’re absolutely right that the Bucks have had an extremely favorable schedule so far. But it’s a surprisingly good team that is another among a large group in the East that could finish within a handful of games of .500 either way.

[nasty daddy]

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Wilbert (New Orleans): The Pistons’ bigs need to score more points as a group. Ben gives you rebounds and blocks, but Maxiell needs to be more consistent and Wilcox needs to find his niche.

Langlois: Wilcox is the one among the group of Wallace, Brown and Maxiell that has a history of scoring in double digits, Wilbert, and he had his best moments as a Piston so far in Saturday’s overtime loss at Utah, even though it wasn’t reflected in the box score. He played OK at Phoenix, too. But the reality is the Pistons aren’t going to get consistent frontcourt scoring from anyone other than Charlie Villanueva. To try forcing the issue wouldn’t play to their strengths.

[nasty daddy]

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Tony (Warren, Mich.): What are the chances, percentage wise, that Tayshaun Prince returns to full strength this season without having surgery and when will he likely be back?

Langlois: The Pistons aren’t saying much about the timetable for return for either Prince or Hamilton, mostly because they don’t know. But nobody has even hinted that surgery is in the cards for Prince. In fact, they have shown some progress in the past week. Maybe by sometime this week, they’ll be far enough along that the Pistons can put a time frame on their returns.

[nasty daddy]

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Phillip (Waterford, Mich.): With a slow start and the injuries to Prince and Hamilton, do you think the Pistons can finally get on track after this West Coast trip is over and win most of these games coming up?

Langlois: Getting back home helps and getting back their two injured starters will help more. The schedule is still pretty tough this week with two of the East’s top four teams, Cleveland and Atlanta, sandwiched around Friday’s game with the Clippers. But, yeah, with a return to health and the evening out of the schedule, sooner or later the wins should start piling up for them. The Pistons are at least fortunate that many of the teams with which they’ll be competing for playoff spots – teams like Philly, Washington, Toronto and Miami are either struggling or not taking advantage of soft schedules to the extent they should be.

[nasty daddy]

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Seth (New Baltimore, Mich.): I know it’s probably complete speculation, but I heard a rumor that Rip was considering retirement. Please tell me there is no truth to this proposal.

Langlois: I can assure you that isn’t happening, Seth – Rip has about $50 million still coming to him on a contract that runs three more seasons beyond this one. Retire and he gives up all of that money. I suspect you heard that he would like to retire as a Piston – eventually.

[nasty daddy]

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Dylan (Ray, Mich.): Gordon, Stuckey, Bynum and Rip are all very good. Which one should the Pistons trade, or should they keep all four and trade Prince and Kwame for a decent center or power forward?

Langlois: How about playing out the season – or at least the months ahead of the trade deadline – and seeing what they have and projecting how the young players will develop? If the Pistons see enough growth potential in Jerebko, Daye and Summers – and believe that they can get productive minutes at power forward from at least one of them – then why not keep the potency of the perimeter intact and focus the off-season, both the draft and the use of the mid-level exception in free agency, on beefing up the interior?

[nasty daddy]

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Rob (Rockford, Mich.): Jerebko’s defense has been great, but I thought he was more of a scorer when he played in Italy. Can you tell me how you see him as an offensive player?

Langlois: Jerebko averaged about nine points a game last year it Italy, where the games are 40 minutes long and the scores are usually in the 70s or 80s. He does have the tools to be a solid NBA scorer. He can shoot the 3-pointer effortlessly, even if he’s shot it inconsistently so far; he can put the ball on the floor; and he’s active around the rim. Eventually, the Pistons believe his offensive bread-and-butter component will be in pick-and-roll situations, where his athleticism, aggressiveness and shooting will make him a force.

[nasty daddy]

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Stoudemire, Suns hand Pistons fifth straight loss
Amare Stoudemire scored 21 points and Steve Nash tallied 20 points and nine assists in Phoenix's 117-91 blowout of the Detroit Pistons.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.emptythebench.com/2009/11/23 ... s-updates/

Reading is Great! Today’s NBA Rumors, Updates, and SNF Wardrobe Malfunctions
- Ball Don’t Lie – Kelly Dwyer’s daily Behind the Box Score is a morning must-read.
- Yahoo! Sports – Tracy McGrady feels like an old pair of shoes in Houston.
- Newsday – That said, the Knicks might be willing to try on those old shoes.
- Full-Court Press – Good things are happening when the Pistons go small.
- TrueHoop – Maybe Steve Nash wasn’t a product of Mike D’Antoni’s system after all.
- Nets Are Scorching – At 0-13, the Nets have no reason not to turn to Sean Williams.
- CelticsBlog – Disappointed Celtics fans pointing the finger of blame at Father Time.
- NBA FanHouse – Rasheed Wallace still loves the three-point shot…
- With Malice… – … while Kobe Bryant is still making circus shots. (Wow.)
- The Fabulous Forum – Kings announcer wonders if Hamed Haddadi is related to Borat.
- NBA.com – Are the wheels (already) coming off the Washington Wizards wagon?
- Both Teams Played Hard – Coming out of the closet for Dwyane Wade.
- Third Quarter Collapse – Who needs Jameer Nelson when you have Jason Williams?
- Hoops Addict – Ryan McNeill catches up with Pops Mensah-Bonsu, aka “The Legend.”
- BallHype – Finally, Devin Hester experiences a wardrobe malfunction on SNF

[nasty daddy]

http://www.motownstringmusic.com/2009/1 ... pistons-91

Burned: Suns 117, Pistons 91
Coming into the fourth and final game of what seemed like a much longer road trip, you had to have at least a speck of concern about the Pistons and how this one would play out. The first place Suns were looking to avenge a loss to New Orleans after having two days rest, while the Pistons just lost a tough overtime game in Utah less than 24 hours ago. And somewhat surprisingly, the Pistons came out fighting and as competitive as they've been all year in the first 12 minutes.

They trailed by just three after the first quarter despite the fact the Suns made their first seven shots and finished the quarter shooting a sizzling 58%. If the Pistons played that well the rest of the game and Phoenix cooled off just a little, the Pistons could have actually defeated the Suns. Unfortunately, the Suns never cooled off and the Pistons hit a wall en route to their 5th straight loss. Phoenix was not once shooting below 55% for the game and finished at their first quarter pace of 58% while knocking down 11-18 from behind the arc (61%). Detroit's tired team, meanwhile, couldn't keep up with the Suns fast-paced offense and never recovered from the 17-5 run Phoenix put together to end the first and start the second quarter .

Detroit's high scorers were Charlie Villanueva and rookie DaJuan Summers, with 13 points. Will Bynum probably had the Pistons' best game with 11 points on 5-8 shooting, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. It is never good when your best player for the game has just 11 points. The Suns were led by Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash. Stoudemire had a game-high 21 points, five rebounds, and two blocks. Steve Nash finished with 20 points on 7-8 shooting and dished out nine assists.