Phuque the dumb sh!t

[deusXango]

It's been a couple of uninspired wins, and in my mind, that's not enough to exonerate Joe & Mo....you can talk about the lackadaisical, dumb play of the current players, but you can't fire the whole team, nor should you!! There are some players who're taking up roster space that shouldn't be here, and there are some players in the rotation that can be easily improved on, but overall this is not a team devoid of talent, or intelligence (really)...Joe ain't doing his damn job, and Mo can't do his; neither has the necessary, across the board intelligence (not to be confused with their on-court basketball accomplishments) to excel in the leadership roles they're charged with.

Joe's explanations for his backward ass decisions over the years speak for themselves...anyone who can't see that providence smiled down on this franchise, and not Joe Dumars excellence as a GM, is the reason we won the 'ship of 2004, is blinded by misplaced loyalty.

Mo's handling of the Pistons highest paid player, and most talented/athletic/veteran big man, to send a message to the team has clearly backfired; that benching for missing a ridiculous and unnecessary called practice (breaking a streak of starts that any player would take pride in), and allowing him to jack up wild-eyed shot, after shot, like he's never had any coaching in his career, borders on gross disinterest in the team.

I totally agree with Tom Gores veiled threat to clean house; it's time for an administrative makeover. Only a pro-active GM will make a difference when it comes to acquiring talent, not only for the floor, but the bench as well. A storied franchise, with multiple championships, shouldn't have to put up with the hiring of a run of coaches, the likes of Curry, Kuester, Lil Larry, and now Cheeks; not when there are proven HC's available!!

Why can't Detroit have two quality, young centers, co-existing? Monroe's pending free agency is no reason to make a hasty decision to part ways with him, and getting all caught up in the hype about his lack of playing all-star level defense is nonsense; he'll improve at age 23! The talk about Drummond not blocking enough shots, or protecting the rim, is insane when you're ignoring the fact he's a 20 year old double-double machine, and doing it while in a sleepwalking like state. I pose this question, because I know damn well we're not superior to the Pacers, but they just signed Bynum (giving them TWO 7 foot centers); does anyone actually think that they'll trade Hibbert if Bynum works out? If Bynum works out, does anyone believe they'll trade him, or will they use the both of them to achieve eastern conference superiority?

Why is so much time spent on debating whether to trade Monroe or Smith, and no steps are being taken to trade Stuckey (who's an UFA), or packaging Jerebko, Bynum, and possibly Singler, for a SF or SG? There's not a damn thing wrong with Billups mouth, so where is all this mentoring he was hyped to be providing? Say what you will about the owner, but there's got to be someone in the inner circle of a billionaire, who can see what a number of posters on this site see and discuss; I'm hoping it's a short matter of time before things sort themselves out.

I'd rather have had Bill Laimbeer over the last 4 coaching hires; I don't care what Isaiah Thomas did in New York, I expect that his efforts as GM of the Pistons, over the last 6 years, would have us enjoying a higher quality brand of basketball right now. Bill Davidson and Tom Wilson are gone, it's time for a real change and phuque the dumb sh!t.

[Sparma]

Reading the tea leaves, something jumps out at me in Gores' comments.  He says (among other things):

"We're just focused on getting the guys better and preparing them."

"I'm not satisfied ... our job is to make sure that the players are working at their maximum," he said.  "So I'm not satisfied with the job I'm doing, I'm not satisfied with the job anybody's doing right now...."

"I feel like our job is to make sure that they are at their maximum and I don't think they're at their maximum."

"I actually don't think we have done our best job to make sure they're working at 100 percent," he said.  "We have great young players.  These are guys that need a lot of preparation."

In my edited version, he refers to being at the maximum three times, as well as to the need to be at 100%, as well as the need for full preparation.  That's a major emphasis in such a short statement!

He could just be speaking in a generic way about unfulfilled potential and the importance of coaching.

Maybe my obsession with stats gets the better of me here, but I think he's (in part) saying something more specific: he wants evidence that the analytics team he's gathered is being incorporated to secure maximum preparation.  Analytics is crucial to Gores' business success.  He's made a big deal of it as owner.  It makes sense, then, that he wants Dumars and Cheeks to show that all available resources are being used to get the players optimally prepared.  The veiled message/ threat is (I would further extrapolate) that a crucial criterion for job performance used by Gores will be whether Dumars and Cheeks show a willingness and ability to make effective use of all available resources for maximal preparation, including analytics.  Maybe a far-fetched interpretation, but there's a recurrent theme in Gores' words in need of a specific interpretation.

[Oracle]

Those Damn Stupid Lions always do the wrong effing thing!

If you're watching the Superbowl, you'll see how dominant Cliff Avril is for Seattle!

Why in the world did the Lions trade their BEST pass rusher???

Last year, we couldn't get sacks the way we did when Avril was here, and It really coat us some games!!!

[cool breeze]

Jennings wanted to get into Turners grill protecting his rookie, KCP, after Turner hit KCP in the face with the ball, Jennings went after him!

That's some good old bad boys shizzle!!!

That was about it as far as excitement goes for that game. I can't get over how dull most Piston games are this season. Greg Kelser did a good job of showing Piston guard problems with the high screen. He made a point of saying just be consistent and then mentioning that the guards need to get under the screens. The big man and the guard need to communicate and the guard needs to yell I have him so there is not switch off creating a problem with the guard switching on to the big man. Being that our guards are so handicapped at playing defense maybe this is a good idea. Then Detroit can forfeit all games where the opposing team has dead eye long range shooter. Those are the better teams in the league. But our Pistons could just try to stop dribble penetration more and give up the long range shots by going under rather than over screens. It is much more difficult to get over screens. That requires good foot work, determination and anticipation that the screen is coming. None of our guards have those qualities.

In my opinion, it is difficult to judge how good our big men really are because our guards are so horrible. I do know that Josh Smith is fundamentally flawed in his technique at shooting jump shots past 8 feet. And I really wonder how anyone can not at least get the basketball to go straight on to the rim on foul shots rather than firing them off to the side. Even the worst high school free throw shooters can usually get the ball on track to the rim even though the shot might be short or long. We have three players in Drummond, Smith and Monroe who cannot even get the ball on a straight line to the basket some of the time. How about trying to shoot with the finger tips rather than the palm of the hand and get the off hand off the ball before the release. Keep it simple rather than complex. Who in hell is offering instruction on foul shooting for this team? I think it is time of fire some of the assistant coaches but maybe our players have been drinking alcohol before the games. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe the team is having pre game cocktails after the warm ups and before the tip off.

[Oracle]

Jennings wanted to get into Turners grill protecting his rookie, KCP, after Turner hit KCP in the face with the ball, Jennings went after him!

That's some good old bad boys shizzle!!!

[cool breeze]

So last night, the surging NY Knicks moved ahead of the Pistons in the standings for the first time this season.  The knicks have won 9 out of their last 14.  

Meanwhile our Pistons have won the last 4 out of 17, and fell to 10th in the Eastern Conference.

John Hollinger at ESPN gives the Pistons a 21.4% chance of makig the playoffs.

All of a sudden, our season is winding down.


With that in mind, maybe we should begin to conceed the season.  Maybe we should play a lot of our young guys, like Harrellson and Mitchell, to see what they can do.  

Should we try to tank to retain our draft pick?  I mean....if we're not going to make the playoffs anyway...

Yes Murph. Piston management needs to tank the season starting with the next game. We need a talent upgrade and the draft has a lot of talent this time around.

[cool breeze]

I keep saying this but it appears that few are noticing that Harrellison is a much more fundamentally sound player and gives a better effort than our other 3 star caliber big men. He knows the rotations even though he gets limited minutes. He blocked several shots in the last game and sets good screens and moves his body on offense more than Drummond or Monroe. And if Harrellison got the same amount of time our other big men are receiving, you can bet that his shooting percentage from the 3 point line would greatly improve. Josh is a really good outside shooter. He draws his defender out of the paint which opens things up for the cutters and the other big man. I like the combination of Monroe and Harrellison but he could make the other big guys look a lot better as well if he could only play more. Mo Cheeks is getting a lot of pressure to stay on course with the BIG tHREE that Dumars has been promoting. This will never work in today's NBA game. The team must have a big man who can stand outside and be a threat. Smith is not that kind of players even though he thinks that is his gig. Smith hasn't put in the work to become a good outside shooter. Smith doesn't believe in practice. Cheeks wants to keep his job so he is doing what Dumars wants which should cost him his job in the end.

[cool breeze]

You know, I hate to keep blaming mosquitoes for mosquitoes bites, so in the opinion of some strange thinking on this board, maybe you should just blame those bites on sun spots!

I've developed a much better opinion of Larry Frank after seeing Cheeks coach! No, I still don't like Franks dog house, but I do like the way he would only play players that could follow his directions, even if the talent wasn't there!

The only thing dumb around here is the players being played by the coach, and those players are Josh Smith & Brandon Jennings, the source of the problems this team has!

Through Christmas, Detroit ranked No. 12 in the NBA in points per possession. The Pistons’ offense wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

Since then, the Pistons have the NBA’s 26th-most-effective offense.
....................................

That means the set offense has become the issue.

Turnovers and three-point shooting are both the root and symptoms of the problem.

Running the offense through Jennings and Smith, the Pistons frequently get themselves into trouble. If Smith and Jennings don’t turn the ball over or force a three-pointer early in the possession, the play too often still goes nowhere. That leaves mere seconds on the shot clock and little option to do anything but force a risky pass or a long shot. - What’s wrong with the Pistons’ offense?

Cheeks keeps playing them and failing, but for some reason, he keeps hoping for a different result! So are the players bad, or is it the coach?

Well, until the players start playing themselves, even the rope a dopes in the crowd would seemingly have to lay the blame where it belongs!

Of course folks like to blame Joe, and he has nothing to do with this putrid performance, but he is responsible for bringing them together, and for that, the ultimate blame falls on his shoulders!

1. Joe blew the draft big time! For this team, MCW was the pick, no if's and's or but's! MCW had all of the skills we needed and the size we absolutely had to have to be competitive! Burke would have been the choice if MCW wasn't available, but if both are there, MCW is the pick!

2. Joe hired the worst coach available! For a coach, we needed either a coach that has experience bringing along a young team, and/or one experienced in bringing along big men! With Cheeks Joe got neither! Cheeks has never coached a young team, and is more focused on PG's! He is having some success with Jennings, but it could take longer to get him right than if would have taken to get BK7, Burke, or MCW to play right!

Both Joe & Cheeks can turn this thing around and make the playoffs and be dangerous, but it'll take some real hard soul searching and radical moves, which likely means it won't happen!

Joe actually doesn't need a big move, but if he could get a starting SF that can shoot and a bench shooter at any position, the fortunes of this team could change radically!

Cheeks could change the fortunes of this team if he simply stopped running the offense through Jennings! However, you'd have to admit the mistake in Jennings, and either start Siva, or run the offense through Monroe with an assist from KCP!

Monroe is no Chris Webber, but he could come close if tasked with being a facilitator full time! It also would make it easier for him to call his own number and score better!

But Monroe as facilitator delivers another hidden benefit! It forces the rest of the team to move without the ball! IMO, doing that would make both Jennings & Smith better scorers, but would do wonders for the current stagnant offense.

Ok Oracle I have to agree with you on all of your points. If you can identify significant areas where the Pistons could improve and others also believe in your points, then how bad must this management team including the coaching staff be right now? Really bad it seems. I still try not to buy into the idea that the coach is the problem. The roster is the problem but for sure the head coach is not making things better. I really liked your thought about Frank. It is true that he was true to himself and refused to play players including Stuckey who he identified as problem players. He gave the players who really tried to improve the team most of the playing time. He played team orientated players. Cheeks made some comments this summer about the players including Bynum and Stuckey and I thought he was really in left field or way out of touch with the players capabilities. Telling the media that he was counting on Stuckey on being a team leader and that Bynum had a lot to offer this team really worried me a lot. Maybe Cheeks has been around NBA players on a personal basis a long time and believes that in time even this group will one day play as one. The problem the owners have right now is the fact that Detroit basketball fans are not in love with Joe Dumars select group of dysfunctional mentally handicapped players. Fans are not respecting who they are as basketball payers. For instance back when Jonas Jerebco was a rookie and playing his heart out every night, fans showed up to see him play even though our Pistons lost a lot of games. Now we have what some people call under achievers. I don't believe that myself. I think a lot of our players just do not have the proper basketball experience and education or the ability to be coached at this point in their careers. No coach could make this group into real winners but I agree that Mo Cheeks has not made players accountable.

[Oracle]

You know, I hate to keep blaming mosquitoes for mosquitoes bites, so in the opinion of some strange thinking on this board, maybe you should just blame those bites on sun spots!

I've developed a much better opinion of Larry Frank after seeing Cheeks coach! No, I still don't like Franks dog house, but I do like the way he would only play players that could follow his directions, even if the talent wasn't there!

The only thing dumb around here is the players being played by the coach, and those players are Josh Smith & Brandon Jennings, the source of the problems this team has!

Through Christmas, Detroit ranked No. 12 in the NBA in points per possession. The Pistons’ offense wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

Since then, the Pistons have the NBA’s 26th-most-effective offense.
....................................

That means the set offense has become the issue.

Turnovers and three-point shooting are both the root and symptoms of the problem.

Running the offense through Jennings and Smith, the Pistons frequently get themselves into trouble. If Smith and Jennings don’t turn the ball over or force a three-pointer early in the possession, the play too often still goes nowhere. That leaves mere seconds on the shot clock and little option to do anything but force a risky pass or a long shot. - What’s wrong with the Pistons’ offense?

Cheeks keeps playing them and failing, but for some reason, he keeps hoping for a different result! So are the players bad, or is it the coach?

Well, until the players start playing themselves, even the rope a dopes in the crowd would seemingly have to lay the blame where it belongs!

Of course folks like to blame Joe, and he has nothing to do with this putrid performance, but he is responsible for bringing them together, and for that, the ultimate blame falls on his shoulders!

1. Joe blew the draft big time! For this team, MCW was the pick, no if's and's or but's! MCW had all of the skills we needed and the size we absolutely had to have to be competitive! Burke would have been the choice if MCW wasn't available, but if both are there, MCW is the pick!

2. Joe hired the worst coach available! For a coach, we needed either a coach that has experience bringing along a young team, and/or one experienced in bringing along big men! With Cheeks Joe got neither! Cheeks has never coached a young team, and is more focused on PG's! He is having some success with Jennings, but it could take longer to get him right than if would have taken to get BK7, Burke, or MCW to play right!

Both Joe & Cheeks can turn this thing around and make the playoffs and be dangerous, but it'll take some real hard soul searching and radical moves, which likely means it won't happen!

Joe actually doesn't need a big move, but if he could get a starting SF that can shoot and a bench shooter at any position, the fortunes of this team could change radically!

Cheeks could change the fortunes of this team if he simply stopped running the offense through Jennings! However, you'd have to admit the mistake in Jennings, and either start Siva, or run the offense through Monroe with an assist from KCP!

Monroe is no Chris Webber, but he could come close if tasked with being a facilitator full time! It also would make it easier for him to call his own number and score better!

But Monroe as facilitator delivers another hidden benefit! It forces the rest of the team to move without the ball! IMO, doing that would make both Jennings & Smith better scorers, but would do wonders for the current stagnant offense.

[Sparma]

The Pistons have an impressive sounding stats guy -- Ken Catanella, director of basketball operations. In addition, Gores came in sounding keen on featuring analytics, just as he had on his way to becoming a billionaire. I don't see much evidence it's made much of a difference to decisions by Dumars or Cheeks so far.

I'm reminded of a possible example by way of PP: the drafting of KCP. One analyst ranked him #3 in the 2013 quantitatively, then dropped him beyond Burke, when adding his subjective view. I'm sure that possible example will enhance your love of analytics, Moose! Even there, I know of no evidence of Joe being influenced by analytics, just that at least one analyst ranked KCP highly.

[WTF]

"Joe makes 5 Million a year Gores shouldn't have to tell him playoff or else that's what he was being paid to do the past 6 season.   Gores tells him to do his job and now it's Gores fault?  Right"
Let me try and answer your question the best way I can.

The NBA is by far the slowest sport to rebuild in. The NBA has the weakest DRAFT in the country. The NBA is the only sport where you can be the worst team in the league and get the 4th or 5th lottery pick.

MLB draft is better. NFL Draft is better. NHL Draft is better.

So to rebuild in the NBA it takes LUCK..Luck.. some more Luck,and TIME!!!  Unless you going to be A LUXARY TAX TEAM!!!!

I'm not saying Gores is wrong, I'm saying back off the "we better make the playoffs," keep building and trust your people you have in place. Have some patience and you will never have to say playoffs or else.

Look at what Indiana did. It took YEARS!!!! but the program is back where it belongs.

Pacers were never as bad as this team currently is their last playoff season was to and in 2011 they were right back in it. 2009 was our last time and we're not even close.

But instead of always finding a worse case scenario why not look at teams like the Mavericks, and Spurs and ask why Joe couldn't do the same thing.

[WTF]

There's a good article at PP about whether or not the Pistons use analytics.  A good case is made (contra David Mayo) that analytics likely affect their decision-making (contra David Mayo).  Whether that happens effectively is a different question (as Feldman points out).  I'll stick with the claim they don't make effective use of analytics (the mess we're in attests ambly to that).  It's pretty hard for me to see the Smith signing and the Jennings trade as motivated by analytics (let alone the decision to give up a 1st rounder in order to spend money a year early).  Those decisions (along with the hiring of Cheeks) look human, all too human, to me.

If they do then they need to fire all their stat crunchers. IMO Joe does rely strongly on the eye test and I honestly don't have an issue with that. IMO where Joe falls off is that he gambles that whatever flaw a players has can be corrected once in a Pistons uniform.

You can't use stats and analytics with a player like Josh IMO. Josh is a player, an athlete, that needs to be contained by surrounding him with smart players but at the same time you just let him play. On the other hand when it comes to Jennings analytics should have been front and center in assessing how he would fit.

[WTF]

It's a shame KCP wasn't selected for the Rookie Challenge, and even more shameful, he has to play for a dead head, cold fish like Mo Cheeks; yeah the team is under-performing, but IMO they're following the lead Cheeks has established. Anyway I digress, KCP didn't make it, but being a sentimental favorite aside, he shouldn't have been a Piston in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!! Did Trey Burke make it? Did Michael Carter-Williams make it? These are PG's who were available to us....PG is what we went into the draft needing badly......we passed on the obvious fulfillment of a need to reach for what? A stud SG? Tim Hardaway Jr. was right up the road also, did he make it? KCP was a bad choice at #8 people.

Joe Dumars needs his fat ass kicked for tapping Mo Cheeks to coach this team, selecting KCP with the #8 pick (with the players on the board at the time), resigning Will Bynum, and bringing Chauncey Billups back, only to trade away Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton for Brandon Jennings.....all this wheel spinning to justify not drafting Burke or MC-W. I don't dislike KCP, but I think Joe is weak and Cheeks is equally disinterested as he is in over his head. This is a snapshot of the mess that's been made of our guard corps only, so who wants to keep saying this ain't Joe's or Mo's fault? Two clowns wasting money, time, and talent.

IMO Fat Ass should have made a play to get both Burke and Hardaway

[Murph]

So last night, the surging NY Knicks moved ahead of the Pistons in the standings for the first time this season.  The knicks have won 9 out of their last 14.  

Meanwhile our Pistons have won the last 4 out of 17, and fell to 10th in the Eastern Conference.

John Hollinger at ESPN gives the Pistons a 21.4% chance of makig the playoffs.

All of a sudden, our season is winding down.


With that in mind, maybe we should begin to conceed the season.  Maybe we should play a lot of our young guys, like Harrellson and Mitchell, to see what they can do.  

Should we try to tank to retain our draft pick?  I mean....if we're not going to make the playoffs anyway...

[Sparma]

There's a good article at PP about whether or not the Pistons use analytics. A good case is made (contra David Mayo) that analytics likely affect their decision-making (contra David Mayo). Whether that happens effectively is a different question (as Feldman points out). I'll stick with the claim they don't make effective use of analytics (the mess we're in attests ambly to that). It's pretty hard for me to see the Smith signing and the Jennings trade as motivated by analytics (let alone the decision to give up a 1st rounder in order to spend money a year early). Those decisions (along with the hiring of Cheeks) look human, all too human, to me.

[cool breeze]

Did anybody else see this train wreck of a season coming?   I sure didn't.  

1. Josh Smith setting a record for worst three point shooting in NBA history
2. Same record as last year at this point 17-27
3. Brandon Jennings shooting 37.8%
4. Charlie V still on the team even after playing only in 13 games
5. The team shooting 66% on free throws, last in the league
6. The team last in three point shooting 30.7%
7. The team 26th in defense allowing 103.2 per game
8. The team blowing many fourth quarter leads

The guy who put this team together must have been high on cocaine.  But I digress.

Fennis...you make a good point, in your usual amusing way.  I didn't see any of this coming....particularly being 26th in the league in defense.

I thought we'd cruise into the playoffs with about a .500 record.

Agreed. My crystal ball did not reveal any of what WE have witness to this point, either. I was arrested by my own levels of naivety and pre-season exuberance. I even thought that Mo' Cheeks would be markedly better than Curry, Kuester, and Frank. 

Some of us knew what the outcome would be once Dumars re signed Bynum for two years and instead of dumping Stuckey decided that he should be a team leader. Some fans thought that Dumars was pretty clever signing Bynum for more money than Nate Robinson could get for a one year contract. Nate was the small guy who always destroyed Stuckey and Bynum in their matchups when he was with the Bulls. But Joe didn't notice. This is the NBA where there are real stud players who work hard and are always improving. Notice Affalo who has been real steady at showing improvement. Notice Stuckey who is the same player he was when he was drafted. Murph put together a real insightful list of stats. If this set of guards continue to play for the Pistons next year, we will see more of the same.

[cool breeze]

It's a shame KCP wasn't selected for the Rookie Challenge, and even more shameful, he has to play for a dead head, cold fish like Mo Cheeks; yeah the team is under-performing, but IMO they're following the lead Cheeks has established. Anyway I digress, KCP didn't make it, but being a sentimental favorite aside, he shouldn't have been a Piston in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!! Did Trey Burke make it? Did Michael Carter-Williams make it? These are PG's who were available to us....PG is what we went into the draft needing badly......we passed on the obvious fulfillment of a need to reach for what? A stud SG? Tim Hardaway Jr. was right up the road also, did he make it? KCP was a bad choice at #8 people.

Joe Dumars needs his fat ass kicked for tapping Mo Cheeks to coach this team, selecting KCP with the #8 pick (with the players on the board at the time), resigning Will Bynum, and bringing Chauncey Billups back, only to trade away Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton for Brandon Jennings.....all this wheel spinning to justify not drafting Burke or MC-W. I don't dislike KCP, but I think Joe is weak and Cheeks is equally disinterested as he is in over his head. This is a snapshot of the mess that's been made of our guard corps only, so who wants to keep saying this ain't Joe's or Mo's fault? Two clowns wasting money, time, and talent.

dX it is true that this Piston team looks like a group of dysfunctional losers but it is getting tiring blaming coaching staffs for players performances. For me, I would love to play for Mo Cheeks. He is not jumping around trying to be the center of attention. I believe Cheeks knows who he is dealing with relating to the type of players he is in charge of. When I analysis Cheeks, I say to myself how in hell could I make any sense of this team composed of so many guards who cannot defend any player in the NBA. Who do you pick to be in the rotation. I would for sure not play Bynum but in the last game, Bynum did offer some limited scoring while KCP was ineffective as the starter. Some things we can identify. Stuckey and Bynum have been part of a losing tradition yet many fans keep plugging him in for a starter next season under a new coaching staff. Fans like Dumars keep ignoring DEFENSE. You cannot win with this set of guards no matter who the coaching staff might be. Nobody but a few of us seem to identify that fact. If a poll were taken with GMs throughout the league, I doubt that any GM would say any of our guards would be welcome on their teams. Other GMs know Stuckey's history. Why would they want Bynum where any guard in America can drive around him or shoot over him? What point guard in the NBA is worse than Bynum or Stuckey at running a team? NONE is the correct answer. So go ahead and blame Mo Cheeks. I would agree that he should play Siva even though Siva looked horrible when he did get playing time earlier in the season. Monroe was very surprised that KCP didn't get invited to the All Star festivities. I wasn't surprise at all. KCP gets beat on a regular basis on defense and he is no offensive threat while he has been given the starting job based on nothing he has done on the court. The simple fact is that KCP has a lot of defects but he is only 20 years old so the experience is good for his development. And although KCP is not a good defender, he is better than any of the other guards on the team.

THE BEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN TO THE DETROIT PISTONS THIS SEASON IS TO LOSE AS MANY GAMES AS POSSIBLE AND KEEP THAT #1 DRAFT CHOICE. The Pistons need to upgrade their talent base and team basketball IQ. There are some players in this draft that will greatly improve this team. It is not lack of experience that makes this team perform so poorly. It is lack of basic talent. the basic ingredient to identify a talented player is his basketball IQ. Many of our players are missing something upstairs and no coach can coach can coach those players. We have horrible defenders that goes with lazy performers who are not interested in doing basic things like moving without the ball or setting screens or boxing out. Many of our players seem to be moody individuals who are comfortable losing and are used to it.

It is a joke that some fans are surprised that Drummond was not selected to the All Star team. Are you kidding me? Why in hell should Drummond be invited to the All Star game? He has no idea what he is doing most of the time. He screws up basic plays and still doesn't get how to rotate on defense. He can't shoot a free throw to save his life. Maybe in a few years Drummond will upgrade his game but this is a silly conversation to even bring up.

But you are correct on one thing dX. Joe Dumars has to go and the owners need to send his entire staff packing as well. I love Dumars but it is clear he has no idea how to build a team. I only wish that we had at least one good guard who is smart and can defend to see if that would improve the way our big men play. Our big men are not smart players and are all weak defenders but there is a lot of pressure on them because our guards cannot stop dribble penetration or cannot get out on the shooters or get through screens. We most likely will never know because it is likely that one of the big men will be traded.

[deusXango]

It's a shame KCP wasn't selected for the Rookie Challenge, and even more shameful, he has to play for a dead head, cold fish like Mo Cheeks; yeah the team is under-performing, but IMO they're following the lead Cheeks has established. Anyway I digress, KCP didn't make it, but being a sentimental favorite aside, he shouldn't have been a Piston in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!! Did Trey Burke make it? Did Michael Carter-Williams make it? These are PG's who were available to us....PG is what we went into the draft needing badly......we passed on the obvious fulfillment of a need to reach for what? A stud SG? Tim Hardaway Jr. was right up the road also, did he make it? KCP was a bad choice at #8 people.

Joe Dumars needs his fat ass kicked for tapping Mo Cheeks to coach this team, selecting KCP with the #8 pick (with the players on the board at the time), resigning Will Bynum, and bringing Chauncey Billups back, only to trade away Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton for Brandon Jennings.....all this wheel spinning to justify not drafting Burke or MC-W. I don't dislike KCP, but I think Joe is weak and Cheeks is equally disinterested as he is in over his head. This is a snapshot of the mess that's been made of our guard corps only, so who wants to keep saying this ain't Joe's or Mo's fault? Two clowns wasting money, time, and talent.

[Phil-Good]

"Joe makes 5 Million a year Gores shouldn't have to tell him playoff or else that's what he was being paid to do the past 6 season. Gores tells him to do his job and now it's Gores fault? Right"
Let me try and answer your question the best way I can.

The NBA is by far the slowest sport to rebuild in. The NBA has the weakest DRAFT in the country. The NBA is the only sport where you can be the worst team in the league and get the 4th or 5th lottery pick.

MLB draft is better. NFL Draft is better. NHL Draft is better.

So to rebuild in the NBA it takes LUCK..Luck.. some more Luck,and TIME!!! Unless you going to be A LUXARY TAX TEAM!!!!

I'm not saying Gores is wrong, I'm saying back off the "we better make the playoffs," keep building and trust your people you have in place. Have some patience and you will never have to say playoffs or else.

Look at what Indiana did. It took YEARS!!!! but the program is back where it belongs.

[cool breeze]

Simple question... has anyone told Smith to shoot less 3s?... how about Jennings... are they expressing how the team needs him to break screens?
I've spent a little extra time watching Jennings defend the P&R... the first thing that stands out is he is almost always blind sided like he doesn't know it's coming... then he buckles like a twig hitting a brick wall.... some of this could be poor communication from his teammates.
This responsibility should be shared equally by the coaching staff... there should be very few surprises at this stage in the season... these guards need to be made be fully aware of when and where the screen is coming from.
My coach would stress this in the pre-game meetings with a film session... you need to have your body positioned to get the maximum jump on the pick... if you are slightly angled where the ball handler & screener are in your vision you can jump the pick before it has time to develop.
Also knowing the ball handlers tendencies... if he has a high % of going left then you are quick to take away his strength... making him move to his week hand towards your help.... If he is not a strong shooter this gives you the luxury of sliding underneath vs trailing.
What we're seeing instead is the same failed reaction time after time... I want Mr Cheeks (man of few words) to let this be known if he is stressing these rudimentary fundamentals.. if he is then it's time to go into LB mode and call these players out in public.

To Josh's credit he has reduced the amount of long range bricks lately... some of this is that he's not always standing beyond the arc... now if he can reduce the off balanced forced shots early in the clock things could improve.
Two more weeks of teaching and working together before tough trade decisions are made.

Mercury I think that i stated last winter when all the hype stated about Smith that he was not coachable in Atlanta. Notice that few if any of his former teammates were sad when he left. He sees himself as a small forward not a power forward. He is tired of the banging you take if you are under sized at that position. Smith is a high school player turned pro. Jennings is the same kind of player. Neither had to listen to their high school coaches. But notice that Bynum and Stuckey also seem surprised with the high screen. We have 3 guards who cannot anticipate this screen or have the will go get over the screen. Monroe is happy to switch off on the guard so he will not have to protect the paint. We have too many dysfunctional players who don't know that they don't know. They also don't like to listen to their coaches. This all gets back to our GM who does not screen players who have never learned the fundamentals or do know them but don't care about them. When players have gone through several coaching staffs and they are still making the same mistakes over and over, do you actually believe that any tactic a coach tries will work on those type of players? Mercury you were the type of person who listened to your coach because you really wanted to improve and also wanted to please the coach so you would get playing time. Many of our players have big contracts and they don't have to listen to anyone and still get paid so they decide not to listen. Still there are fans who will stand in a long line to get an autograph from some of them. So they think they are not only highly paid but people love them because they are in the NBA. Pretty sick when you think of it. So the only way for a franchise to put a good team together is to have a GM who is really smart and can size up players and a GM who really knows the player's background and history. Joe Dumars has really been weak in this area. Once the rule changes took place years ago where hand checks were going to be called on guards, Dumars decided he didn't need two way fundamentally sound players but instead wanted scores. But Joe couldn't even go a good job of selecting those players. During the last game, the opposing announcers stated that Dumars is in the hot seat and then they showed Dumars watching the game. He looked really depressed and worried. The Pistons won but I wonder if he felt any better after watching our players.

[merc]

Simple question... has anyone told Smith to shoot less 3s?... how about Jennings... are they expressing how the team needs him to break screens?
I've spent a little extra time watching Jennings defend the P&R... the first thing that stands out is he is almost always blind sided like he doesn't know it's coming... then he buckles like a twig hitting a brick wall.... some of this could be poor communication from his teammates.
This responsibility should be shared equally by the coaching staff... there should be very few surprises at this stage in the season... these guards need to be made be fully aware of when and where the screen is coming from.
My coach would stress this in the pre-game meetings with a film session... you need to have your body positioned to get the maximum jump on the pick... if you are slightly angled where the ball handler & screener are in your vision you can jump the pick before it has time to develop.
Also knowing the ball handlers tendencies... if he has a high % of going left then you are quick to take away his strength... making him move to his week hand towards your help.... If he is not a strong shooter this gives you the luxury of sliding underneath vs trailing.
What we're seeing instead is the same failed reaction time after time... I want Mr Cheeks (man of few words) to let this be known if he is stressing these rudimentary fundamentals.. if he is then it's time to go into LB mode and call these players out in public.

To Josh's credit he has reduced the amount of long range bricks lately... some of this is that he's not always standing beyond the arc... now if he can reduce the off balanced forced shots early in the clock things could improve.
Two more weeks of teaching and working together before tough trade decisions are made.

[merc]

Murph, that is indeed a knee slapper... this might work if we can send BG str8 to Siberia.
Sort of a super mulligan :^)

[Murph]

The folks at Pistons Powered had an interested trade proposal. Apparently, the Bobcats want to upgrade their PF position. Someone over at PP proposed trading Josh Smith for...drum roll please...Ben Gordon's expiring contract and our 1st round draft choice.

After you get done laughing....you might realize that trade proposal makes a certain amount of sense.

[WTF]

Greg Monroe and Charlie V to Bostons for Rondo, Olynyk and a future 1st round pick. Pistons should try to hold on to this years draft pick by finishing in the lottery 8th or worse. Boston would do this.

[merc]

Who shoots a lot but doesn't convert much...

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