I wonder ...

[Sebastian]

If the New Orleans Pelicans would like to have a young, up and coming center added to their roster. Perhaps, Joe should get on the phone and give Dell Demps a call and present a straight-up trade of Moose for Anthony Davis. The Pelicans will have their center and WE will have OUR power forward.

[Sebastian]

Excuse me fellas, but wherever Daye is, how much hell is he raising there? Is he playing under a worse coaching regime than the one he played for here? It's too many qualified players (both in the NBDL and in Europe) for us to have to re-cycle old players who've been here before; I'm not talking about age either.

Pistons Pals, Daye is catching some serious splinters, while riding the pine in Toronto. He can't be involved in any trade, until 12/15 as he signed an extremely modest contract: $947,907 ('13-'14), $1,063,384 (Team Option: '14-'15).

[WTF]

Excuse me fellas, but wherever Daye is, how much hell is he raising there? Is he playing under a worse coaching regime than the one he played for here? It's too many qualified players (both in the NBDL and in Europe) for us to have to re-cycle old players who've been here before; I'm not talking about age either.

He just stopped by my house to quote me on trimming some of my trees.

This just means Singler and JJ should be trimming trees as well  but if I had to pick from the three. Maybe we can dress Kelser, Cleaves and Stackhouse next game.

[FlyDog]

Excuse me fellas, but wherever Daye is, how much hell is he raising there? Is he playing under a worse coaching regime than the one he played for here? It's too many qualified players (both in the NBDL and in Europe) for us to have to re-cycle old players who've been here before; I'm not talking about age either.

He just stopped by my house to quote me on trimming some of my trees.

[deusXango]

Excuse me fellas, but wherever Daye is, how much hell is he raising there? Is he playing under a worse coaching regime than the one he played for here? It's too many qualified players (both in the NBDL and in Europe) for us to have to re-cycle old players who've been here before; I'm not talking about age either.

[deusXango]

Luigi Datome is a 10 year veteran of professional play, the last year in which he was voted his leagues MVP. That makes a strong statement to me. Between injury, fatigue, and American bias I don't think he's had a fair chance to show his true value to our team. I'm with Sebastian, in thinking that Singler is over rated and has been since Lil' Larry decided to start an unproven 6' 8", 235 SF at SG. Lil' Larry was wrong about damn near everything pertaining to the running of the team, but he got it right with Singler? I don't think so. Jerebko's game has been deteriorating for awhile now, so what have we to lose with giving Datome a shot at starting SF and 20-25 minutes? Let's see what Monroe, Smith, Datome, KCP, and Jennings look like as a starting unit, and Drummond, Stuckey, Mitchell, CV/Harrellson completing the rotation.

Let's be real, with the amount of points we're giving up from game to game, and our inability to score up to potential, why not put our potentially best players on the floor? I'm not talking about the basketball masterminds, but simply the best players. Russell Westbrook is no mastermind, but he damn sure is one of the best players OKC has. Let's be absent the services of Billups, Bynum, Singler, and Jerebko for awhile and see what we have going for us; we know where we stand with them.

IMHO Gigi Datome is the best, albeit untried, SF we have on the roster; the argument that's been made is one of ignorance, ignorance being, simply not knowing, and to that end I'm ignorant also, because I don't know what he's capable of once put to the test. I am hoping for the best though.

[WTF]

Sebastian I wouldn't object to Daye as a back up to Josh at SF but what I do object to is playing him at SG. This team need to get out of the habit of playing players out of position. Only on this team would we see dumb **** like a 6'11 SG part of Daye issues here initial was playing him out of position, he's SF and nothing more.

[FlyDog]

27 **** combo Guards. Our "PG" gets into twitter wars with JR Smith.

It's all on Joe.

[lemonpen]

Chemistry, trust, cohesiveness, execution, all come at a price.  Ours is not an experienced group of successful or semi-successful NBA’ers so we will pay the price of TIME.  Time required to understand,  anticipate and react alike.  Example:  last night, after stealing the ball Monroe would have blindly lofted it down court if he trusted a teammate to have anticipated the TO and run out ahead.  Instead Moose held it long enough to first look up and then be fouled.  No layup, sideout.

I like our athleticism.  I like our aggressiveness.  Composure in the face of adversity is gonna have to come from one of the core guys, or the core changes.  Right now we seem to try and defeat adverse situations by going faster and under less control.  

I’m starting to like the coach.  After 5 possessions of 2 or 3 missed shots and 2 TO all by RS, Mo called timeout.  When we returned, 4 guys touched the ball before JJ was fouled on a layup attempt.  Works for me.  

No Will Bynum is a good start to a new beginning.

I too can’t wait till some shooters show up.  Maybe this is the void to eventually be filled by moving CV & pieces.

Now, lets be better in the next nine games.

[Sebastian]

First short of Stuckey there is no bench support of any kind so what is Cheeks to do? Play the starters for 48 full minutes or roll with a 6 man rotation the entire game.  You can't even blame Cheeks for the **** lack of effort at this point this team act as if they're 6-3 instead of 3-6.
 
I like that Josh called their punk-asses out, Cheeks need to start benching Drummond for Harrellson, because he defends the rim like a little bitch more times than not. Cheeks has pleaded with Monroe to improve on his mid-range game (Moose claimed he worked on it all off season) I see nil improvement.   How as a big man you go an entire game without a foul called against you?  
 
I would sit Singler and JJ at this point and give minutes to Mitchell because they have proven themselves worthless at this point.  I keep hearing all this Singler praising but it doesn't show up in his stats (points, assist, steals, rebounds, blocks) fort the length of time he's getting.  Please don't say defense because of all the time the team gets raped on the perimeter its his man or JJ man doing it.   **** play CV 20 minutes I bet we get more out him if he was promised 20-25 minutes a game.  
 
I said at back in preseason we needed to package both JJ and Singler for a real backup to Josh,  Singler is not a glue guy he's paste trust me there's a difference.   Seems like we sent the wrong SF to the Bucks you ask me.  My mind hasn't changed on Monroe back to back subpar games and people think he deserves a Max Deal. Did he play like a Max Deal players last night or against Cousins? NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!  
 
KCP needs to start attacking the basket and stop settling on the jumps shot, they spent the whole SL having him attack the basket and I have yet to see him once do it.

Pistons Pals, I've said it before and I am saying it, again, Singler is the weakest link and I don't believe that Linguine is the answer either. Note: I am fine with Linguine as a 9th or 10th option, but not the first SF off the bench. WE need a guy who can come off the bench as the 7th-man who can provide more than serviceable back-up minutes at either the SF position or the SG position - one player.

Wise hit on it. Someone like Middleton would had served US well in that capacity, but he is now a Buck and can't become a Pistons. again, until the earliest, next season, so scratch Middleton.

I have scoured NBA rosters for that cheap option and trust me that player is hard to identify, but I have one player in mind. Here comes the request for my fellow Pistons Pals to not taise me. The player, who can fill the 7th-man spot as the back-up SF and who can play some minutes at the SG position is: Austin Daye. WE could move Singler for Daye in a Detroit minute.

[Oracle]

Detroit Pistons (3-6)
Not smooth. Not at all, and they showed why the Greg Monroe, Josh Smith and Andre Drummond trio hasn’t been working so far this season – they simply cannot defend together. Against the Lakers, they allowed LA to shoot nearly 60 percent from the field while on the court together. During that same stint, the Lakers were averaging 127.8 points per 100 possessions. Ouch. However, they’re in the Eastern Conference – which is bad. They’ll still be in striking distance for a lower-seeded playoff spot when it’s all said and done.
PANIC METER: 4
 
NBA Panic Meter Monday: Kings, Grizzlies, Pistons and Cavs

[Oracle]

DX, Cheeks bothers me a lot!

Firstly, he never seems sure of what he's doing! He constantly says he's thinking about something and won't know until game day, but if he doesn't know his players, who does?

Secondly, he does interviews with a mouth full of food! Who does that? Tell the effing reporter to wait until you down your munchies, but don't go on camera talking like a mush mouth!

Thirdly, he says that he doesn't want to say something because the media will hold him to it and it will come back to bite him. WTF is he a man or a mouse? Who gives a sh!t what the Media thinks, isn't he man enough to know what he wants to do and state it with authority, and if anybody doesn't like it they can kiss his ass!

This isn't the behavior of a confident and competent head coach, that's an assistant who's scared to take a position for fear that it might get over ruled!

[deusXango]

Preach brother, PREACH!! Oracle, that not only was scathing, but well deserved for the people it was aimed at. Hopefully Monroe isn't letting his agent put sh!t in his head and he's becoming delusional behind it; his game needs work!! Knowing full well that if Drummond started this year he would have to redefine his skillset, i.e., develop a mid-range jump shot, and increase his FT efficiency; as a #1 or 1a scoring option, those are invaluable skills for a starting PF, who wants to be paid. Smith has his and in comparison, is earning it, even with the benching. Monroe came out the gate like gangbusters, then turned into the new poster child of inconsistency (replacing Rodney Stuckey)...there have been many opportunities for Cheeks to have tried Harrellson or Mitchell in game situations by now.

Drummond is my favorite player, but he's not ready for starters, full time duty; he doesn't have a clue about what's going on and if you asked Rasheed, I'm sure he'd tell you as much!! What he does is based on sheer elite athleticism and nothing more; once 'Dre learns to play the game of a big man, then we'll see what a monster he really is. Keep in mind that Roy Hibbert, all 7' 2" of him, is just coming into his game; how much college experience did he have coming into the NBA? How long has he been in the NBA? Drummond is not ready to compete beyond the 2nd unit level, but he'll be okay in time. I've always said he should start, but play no more than 5 minutes before yielding the floor to a SF, sliding Monroe to center and Smith to PF; Drummond's remaining 20-25 minutes would be played with 2nd unit players (Stuckey, Datome, etc.).

KCP shooting the ball, and being aggressive going to the rack earned him a spot on the bench, at best, and out of the rotation when he performed well in those areas, so now I believe he's confused as to what his coach wants from him. Cheeks says all the right things about this young mans game and how impressive he was in pre-season, but when the season starts, they wheel in this broken down body from the old folks home to start at SG. No wonder he's playing tentative. He probably feels like he's on borrowed time, and doing his best, to hold onto the starting position by doing what he thinks his coach wants from him. His first start, in the first quarter, he scored more than Chauncey averages, and they stopped going to him!! The subliminal suggestion was, "you're shooting too damn much. Who do you think you are?" Hopefully they don't leave this young man a broken spirit, because I see a lot of talent in him.

Oracle, I don't know if CV is off injured reserve yet, but I also would like to see less of Singler and Jerebko, and some "Jorts" and Mitchell; the necessary shakeup is Cheeks call, and he's yet to do anything other than waffle. That SF I was talking about replacing Drummond with after the first 5 minutes? Luigi Datome. I'd love to see Datome play with Monroe and Smith for extended time (20 minutes?) on our frontline.

What's the league average for points allowed? How many points over the league average are we? I rest my case on hiring a proven coach on those numbers. Lionel Hollins was the man; I'd have settled for no less than George Karl, but a proven head coach with a winning record is what we needed for this new team, not a glorified assistant, or a roll of the dice on a Euro icon, or a puppet. WTF was the purpose of having Phil Jackson here? Bullsh!tting the fans.

Yeah, Cheeks is at least 60% of the problem, but he's not responsible for all of it; who interviewed and hired him? Whoever that was, they must share the blame equally.

[Oracle]

No, this is not a fire the coach post, it's a wake the fu#k up coach post!
 
IMO, Cheeks has at least three strikes against him.
 
1. His rotations, while getting better suck
 
2. Here we go again with a coach that doles out minutes based on politics and not on competition for a position.
 
3. Cheeks has no fu#king clue how to manage a game!
 
Cheeks never seems to know when to call a timeout when his players need it, and even when he does, he's ineffective in showing how to navigate out of the situation.
 
BTW, Wise, this isn't the same as coaches of good teams that have played together, letting them play through it! We don't qualify as either good of having played together long enough for that to make any sense.
 
Of course I've complained about this before and few seem to find it a problem, but now others are beginning to notice.
 

Maurice Cheeks I’m not sure if Cheeks understands the value of taking a timeout when the other team is playing well. It gives your team a chance to regroup and reenter the game feeling confident and ready to stop the bleeding.

IMO, C- is way too high a grade for Cheeks. Singler eeked out a D-, and that D wasn't for defense, because Singler is defenseless against SG's that are either fast or can shoot. Unfortunately Singler failed to compensate on the offensive end.
 
I don't agree with all of the grades in this article - Pistons Pick Up First Loss Against a Team They Should Beat.
 
Wise is right, Drummond is becoming very ineffective defending the rim, which has been a big surprise for me this year! Cousins made him look silly as he went for the shot fake EVERY time as Cousins had him prematurely jumping all over the place.
 
Monroe was a HUGE disappointment, as nothing seems to have been accomplished in the offseason... ditto for Drummond, his FT shooting is atrocious!
 
While Josh had a decent game, his shot selection goes very south when the pressure is on! Instead of going to his strength he falls back on his weakness with predictable results.
 
IMO, we have at least 3 players not playing that could help us a lot more!
 
1. CV! Yes, CV should get time in games like these! Don't complain about his defense when you have scrubs dominating our supposed great frontline and putting up career numbers, and that front line can't even hit from 8 feet out! CV looks like crap because he gets no burn, we need to get his ass some conditioning!
 
2. JORTS shows more toughness defending than either Monroe or Drummond, and he can do what decent NBA players should be able to do... shoot the damn ball!
 
3. Mitchell! I'll take Mitchel over either Singler or JJ. IMO, he can backup either SF or PF and defend and shoot better to boot!
 
But most of these problems stem from coaching!
 
I don't know if Cheeks is yet another assistant coach thinking that he's head coach material or not, it's too early to call.
 
However, I do know that he isn't close to getting the job done, and worse, things are going in the wrong direction. I don't give a crap about eeking out some home wins, but if we start losing those as well, Gores & Joe are going to look silly going cheap with Cheeks instead of coughing up the money necessary to get Lionel Hollings!

[WTF]

First short of Stuckey there is no bench support of any kind so what is Cheeks to do? Play the starters for 48 full minutes or roll with a 6 man rotation the entire game.  You can't even blame Cheeks for the **** lack of effort at this point this team act as if they're 6-3 instead of 3-6.
 
I like that Josh called their punk-asses out, Cheeks need to start benching Drummond for Harrellson, because he defends the rim like a little bitch more times than not. Cheeks has pleaded with Monroe to improve on his mid-range game (Moose claimed he worked on it all off season) I see nil improvement.   How as a big man you go an entire game without a foul called against you?  
 
I would sit Singler and JJ at this point and give minutes to Mitchell because they have proven themselves worthless at this point.  I keep hearing all this Singler praising but it doesn't show up in his stats (points, assist, steals, rebounds, blocks) fort the length of time he's getting.  Please don't say defense because of all the time the team gets raped on the perimeter its his man or JJ man doing it.   **** play CV 20 minutes I bet we get more out him if he was promised 20-25 minutes a game.  
 
I said at back in preseason we needed to package both JJ and Singler for a real backup to Josh,  Singler is not a glue guy he's paste trust me there's a difference.   Seems like we sent the wrong SF to the Bucks you ask me.  My mind hasn't changed on Monroe back to back subpar games and people think he deserves a Max Deal. Did he play like a Max Deal players last night or against Cousins? NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!  
 
KCP needs to start attacking the basket and stop settling on the jumps shot, they spent the whole SL having him attack the basket and I have yet to see him once do it.

[WTF]

The way we're beginning to play, what if we end up being the most exciting team that tanks this season? It could be in the back of someone's mind, up high, that it's worth tanking to go after Wiggins, Parker, or Randle, young players we damn sure could use; once in a lifetime type players. With what we could accomplish in the playoffs versus the benefits of being in the lottery, one more year, what makes sense to you? Hmmmmm? Any one of those three makes Monroe expendable.

Nothing these days would shock me if this was a reality. IMO teams should be ready to sell the bank that any of the three are the next Kobe, KG or Lebron with 2 games in the college season.

I don't think it would be smart of Joe or Gores to be thinking tanking a season they was selling to be a playoff one

[deusXango]

The way we're beginning to play, what if we end up being the most exciting team that tanks this season? It could be in the back of someone's mind, up high, that it's worth tanking to go after Wiggins, Parker, or Randle, young players we damn sure could use; once in a lifetime type players. With what we could accomplish in the playoffs versus the benefits of being in the lottery, one more year, what makes sense to you? Hmmmmm? Any one of those three makes Monroe expendable.

[deusXango]

We are going to have to find some shooters with SWAG!

This was a very bad lost, as it unveiled all of OUR teams' warts.

WE got beat by a Kobe-less Lakers team that has a bunch of bench players and Pau. WE let Jordan Hill, Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks, Jordan Farmer, and Shawn Williams beat OUR hopeful playoff Pistons.

OUR guys missed a lot of damn free throws (7-17) and Moose was only 1-8.

WE need a shooter to assume the minutes that Singler is being awarded (20 mins. against the Lakers, 22.4 for the season). Joe should trade Singler and a future 2nd round pick to the Lakers for Wesley Johnson.

Singler believe it or not is OUR weakest link and Linguine is not the answer, either.

Damn, WE should had beat the Lakers .

Detroit 99, L.A. 114; the final score says it all. Once you take into account who beat our high priced team, all the surrounding hoopla means diddly!! You don't learn how to make free throws in a goddamn bowling alley, and no matter how much chemistry that's hyped to be forming, that rag-tag offense is ridiculous, and doesn't appear to reflect a lot of trust in each other. With the performances Monroe has been making lately, it's getting increasingly hard to face up to Wise, and defend not trading his ass (not only does he not show a consistent mid-range game, he's not making free throws; points off the clock are important!), and a near max contract seems waaay too high.

L.A. was hitting from behind the 3 line, but we got our heads handed to us from mid-range also! WTF is Singler and Jerebko doing on the floor at the same time? Maybe it's my T.V., but with the sound turned off, the Pistons offense looks non-existent; Stuckey and Jennings play like they want to be heroes in the eyes of the cheerleaders and any young school girls who may be watching. Pathetic. The ball is still not moving to my satisfaction; last night the passes looked so lackadaisical, and half of our turnovers were from lazy passes. To be fair, Monroe, Smith, and Jennings, in particular, gave up the ball to team mates who were in good scoring position, but it ended there.

I feel in my heart of hearts that we should have gone 2-2 on this west coast trip, and returned home 4-5, with hopes of reaching .500 ball after we played N.Y.; now I live in fear of the Knicks coming in our house and getting well. Why can't we stop anybody Mo Cheeks?! That's totally on you!!!!!

[WTF]

As a team they committed a total of 10 personal fouls the entire game. Funny though how similar the Lions and Pistons losses were yesterday.  Lions break yardage record in a 1st half put up 24 points in a single quarter and then net a 35 yards in the second half.  Stafford had 300 yard passing by halftime Wow! Mega has no catches in the 2nd half.  
 
Pistons we're handling Lakers with ease the 1st half should have been up 20 if they took better care of the ball in that half, but then they come out in the 2nd half and do the opposite of what was working in the first.  They maybe a year away from making the playoffs.

[WTF]

We are going to have to find some shooters with SWAG!

This was a very bad lost, as it unveiled all of OUR teams' warts.

WE got beat by a Kobe-less Lakers team that has a bunch of bench players and Pau. WE let Jordan Hill, Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks, Jordan Farmer, and Shawn Williams beat OUR hopeful playoff Pistons.

OUR guys missed a lot of damn free throws (7-17) and Moose was only 1-8.

WE need a shooter to assume the minutes that Singler is being awarded (20 mins. against the Lakers, 22.4 for the season). Joe should trade Singler and a future 2nd round pick to the Lakers for Wesley Johnson.

Singler believe it or not is OUR weakest link and Linguine is not the answer, either.

Damn, WE should had beat the Lakers.

I was thinking pretty much the same things, the whole team needs to be embarrassed for this loss. Yes Singler should be traded Nick Young whipped on his ass.

I'm starting to think that Drummond isn't the franchise play we thought he'll be progressing towards because he plays like he scare to defend at the basket.

Yes we got beat by a bunch of scrubs.

[Murph]

Tough loss last night.  I was really hoping (expecting?) to win that game, and then feel good about the Pistons west coast trip.  Oh well...it's a process, I guess.

The good news is, the East is so pathetically weak this year, that we're still tied for the last playoff spot.

Our front line had another excellent game...filling up the stat sheet.  

And Jennings had 14 assists, which is great.  But why does Jennings have to shoot 22 times a game?  If he hadn't hit those 3 meaningless 3 pointers at the end of the game, his stat line would have looked lousy.  And I would rather not have this turn into "The Brandon Jennings Show."  He should be our 3rd or 4th or 5th option on offense.

Why are we still giving up 114 points a game?  I have to say, the biggest surprise of this season is how bad our team defense has been.  

I liked the story about the Pistons going out bowling together.  We need all the chemistry we can build.

Next up?...the reeling NY Knick.  We desparately need a big win at home.

Go Pistons!  

[Sebastian]

We are going to have to find some shooters with SWAG!

This was a very bad lost, as it unveiled all of OUR teams' warts.

WE got beat by a Kobe-less Lakers team that has a bunch of bench players and Pau. WE let Jordan Hill, Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks, Jordan Farmer, and Shawn Williams beat OUR hopeful playoff Pistons.

OUR guys missed a lot of damn free throws (7-17) and Moose was only 1-8.

WE need a shooter to assume the minutes that Singler is being awarded (20 mins. against the Lakers, 22.4 for the season). Joe should trade Singler and a future 2nd round pick to the Lakers for Wesley Johnson.

Singler believe it or not is OUR weakest link and Linguine is not the answer, either.

Damn, WE should had beat the Lakers.

[Phil-Good]

[quote="Oracle"]

Brandon Knight will be OK. The guy is A hard worker. It's not his fault he is not A PG. B.K.7 is like A B.J Armstrong, Jason Terry, type of Guard. Not A starting PG but A guy you would love to have on your team and can shoot the LIGHTS OUT!!!-Phillip Boy

Without calling out or making challenges (about a player who's no longer here, by the way) Phillip indicated we were on the same page; he didn't address me personally, but addressed the principal, which is what matters. I respect a man who can eat the meat and spit out the bones, without chocking. Before someone jumps on that line, let me be clear, I RESPECT ALL THE POSTERS ON THIS SITE!! Really I do.

What Phillip said is silly, and we're discussing this ONLY because you brought it up, about a player that is no longer playing here!
 
What in the hell is all this? I'm just talking about BK7. I did not get in the middle of somebody's beef did I??

[Phil-Good]

The Pistons have got to learn how to win these type of games.


The Lakers spirits got high and every jump-shot started to fall. After that the Pistons started to jack up 3's and they not good at that.

The Pistons have to learn to beat the will out of teams like these Lakers. And Detroit needs to get back to playing Detroit Pistons type of Defense.


This team is no where close to that level....

But all and all, nobody played bad in this game. Everybody played well. I love the rotation Cheeks is using now. B.Jennings is learning how to run his team and control the game. Other then Defense, Detroit looks good.

[Oracle]

Consistently steps up his game when the going gets rough!

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