Atlanta sure plays well without Josh Smith as did our young Pistons during the last two weeks of the season

[cool breeze]

Chemistry means everything in basketball. You can't win without it. Some players might actually detest other players on the same team but somehow when they get on the hard court, something beautiful clicks and all the nonsense disappears and there is only basketball on players minds. This Atlanta team is not that talented. However, they have Paul M. who is a team orientated guy that everyone likes. There is no moody guy who has to play key minutes to worry about if you are Paul's teammate. I am so happy for Atlanta even though I wanted the Pacers to get another crack at the Heat. 

I still can't get over what Joe Dumars has done to this Piston team. He must really like sucking up to Michael Jordan. I saw MJ last night shaking hands with Labron after his Bobcats were crushed. MJ has nothing to worry about. He has used the Detroit Pistons as his farm club. How can you figure out the logic of Joe Dumars passing on Joe Johnson who was a real stud as a college player because he had a phone conversation with MJ. MJ said Joe you better take Rodney White or you will not be my buddy. Why was Joe such a good friend of MJs anyway? Didn't the Pistons hate the Bulls and Jordan? Wasn't Dumars a teammate of Zeke's? Did Joe really like Thomas at all as a teammate? There sure is a lot of stuff that has not been said on this topic. It seems that Joe likes Michael better than Zeke. Jordan tried to destroy Thomas's reputation didn't he? Wasn't he responsible for keeping Zeke off the Olympic team? But the final sign of Joe's sucking up habit relating to MJ was this bogus trade involving Ben Gordon. That trade made no sense at all. It was even more insane than the trade involving Jennings for Knight and Middleton. Jordan is smiling a lot lately even after his team was defeated in 4 games because he has made a complete fool out of Joe Dumars again and we fans will feel the brunt of the last round when we lose this number one draft pick either this summer or next summer. This Piston team is a long way away from becoming a quality team. The team is much worse than when we had Maxiell, Singler, Knight, Middleton and Monroe two seasons ago. We have only one player on the team who can defend well consistently and that is Singler. KCP is better than any of the remaining players but he is not yet a good defender. Our Pistons are soft. Drummond and Monroe are both horrible defenders. And then we have the problem child, Josh Smith. 

However, what if Smith is so embarrassed with his performance this past season and is now watching the playoffs and is former team, the Hawks. Will this motivate him to change the way he plays? It is very difficult to change your personality. The percentages are against him and our Piston team next season. I don't think he likes playing with the other Piston players and they don't enjoy him at all. Is there a guard available that could help change Josh Smith's attitude next year? Is there any guard that Josh respects enough to play team orientated basketball? I am for doing whatever is necessary to bring in an entire new crew of guards and trading anyone on the team if necessary. We are rebuilding after all. We have few real players who are capable of playing playoff style basketball. The new GM should tear this team apart and start over. It bothers me that Dumars could walk away now and not be identified for the GM he has become which is horrible or the worst GM in basketball over the past 5 or 6 years. John Hammond and Michael Jordan took advantage of Joe and we have to suffer.

[cool breeze]

Okay I've been making trade scenarios all season for Moose so this one is for all the Josh haters    Okay I would trade Josh Smith and Jennings to Indy for Lance Stephens, George Hill, Scola and Indy's 1st pick.

Wisefan it looks as if Larry Bird has screwed up the Pacer team so badly that one might think he has been taking advise from Joe Dumars. I sure would be happy with that trade proposal you have made. The chemistry on the Pacer team right now is as bad as the Pistons.

[WTF]

After watching First Take, and Mike and Mike this morning I learn so encouraging things that could take place about this issue of ownership.

1. Adam has more power to deal with this issue than I original thought. His powers goes he can take draft picks, levy fines in access of almost 5 million. and indefinite suspension of Sterling. But what also surprised me is that though he can force Sterling to sell the team completely he can force him to relinquish portions of ownership.

2. That both the NBA and its team owners can't force Sterling to sell his team, they can effectively kick the Clippers out of the league. This move would almost force Sterling to sell or suffer huge financial losses if he doesn't sell. But I think the only thing that would move the owners in taking this step is that sponsor and advertisers would have to hit the pockets of the entire league and not just pulling out and away from the Clippers but the league entirely. This means the fans would have to start effecting the bottom line of sponsors and it's possible.

3. Fans can force the hands of all three entities (NBA, Owners and Sponsors) Can you imagine if the black community stop buying Nike, Addidas, and Pepsi. Stop buying jerseys and attending games across the league, not just at Clipper games. I suspect that this would not just be a move by the black communities but all races.

My guess is that Sterling is gone and would be force to sell the team likely sooner than later. Because I think all three actions will occur if as sponsor are already pulling out, and I suspect Adam Silver will announce exactly what I mentioned, and because a league attorney volunteered the info on how the owners can remove or force him to sell by simply kicking the Clippers out of the league that this likely has already been discussed by the owners.

All of this needs to be done swiftly IMO so this ugly issue can be put to rest quickly.

[WTF]

Okay I've been making trade scenarios all season for Moose so this one is for all the Josh haters    Okay I would trade Josh Smith and Jennings to Indy for Lance Stephens, George Hill, Scola and Indy's 1st pick.

[Fennis Dembo]

Donald Sterling's Top Ten List of Excuses for the Many Problems He Has Created

10.  I was under the impression that archivist was street slang for slut.
9.  I thought Magic Johnson was actually a tall Swedish guy with a deep tan.  

8.  Who knew that minorities would want to live in Korea Town?
7.  Who knew minorities could afford to live in Beverly Hills?

6.  When I heckled Baron Davis and called him derogatory names, I was just trying to motivate him with all the tough love I could muster.
5.  Elgin Baylor said I had a "plantation mentality" because I wanted to hire Colonel Sanders as the head coach.

4.  When I told Danny Manning that "The contract offer was a lot for a poor black kid".  I  was just being a cheap SOB not racially insensitive.
3.  My wife is mad because I gave my girlfriend a million dollar condo and four expensive cars.   Wives have no sense of humor when they're being screwed over. Go figure.

2.  I promised to provide services for LA's homeless population, but without a permanent residence and email address they are really hard to find.
1.  When I donated all that money to the NAACP I mistakenly thought it stood for the National Association for the Advancement of College Punks.  I thought it was going for scholarships for drunken frat boys.  You know, like in the movie "Animal House".

[merc]

Not sure why it took this long to bust Sterling... he got away with this **** for years.
This just in from CNN & ESPN... only white people make racist comments... Larry Johnson really meant to say a black league only but whites can pay for tickets.

[cool breeze]

Dwight Howard was a bully in that game. He got away with at least 14 fouls and downright dirty plays. But with a little  3:18 to play, Howard slammed into Lopez in the low post with his shoulder and then turned intentionally hitting Lopez when he turned to go up for the dunk. The officials were letting anything go. Then Lopez got a piece of the basketball and Howard couldn't jam it in. Next time Houston got the ball Howard set a hard screen on the high post. Then he rolled to the basket but wasn't really paying much attention to playing basketball. His intent was to punish a Blazer player because he got his shot blocked. So Howard ran into the lane and Hit Baton in the back really hard knocking this Blazer player out of bounds. No Foul called again by the refs. One ref who was out of bounds on the baseline had a perfect view of that mugging. I hope some of you watched it. The announcers didn't comment on it but there it was on the television screen. His ass should have been kicked out of the game. I have no love for Howard so perhaps I am a little over the top concerning his punishment. The creative revenge on Howard came right after the smack in the back when the Blazers then brought the ball up the court and set up their offense. Howard was slacking off and Portland ran a pick and roll play where Lillard made a perfect pass to Aldridge for an easy score inside and burned Howard's ass. It was as if the Blazer team decided to run that play just to show Howard up. 

I haven't forgotten how Howard manhandled Drummond in their last game. He didn't have to do that. I always enjoy any game where Howard is on the losing end. I hope Drummond remembers and is working hard today thinking about that game and how he wants to play against Howard the next time.

[Murph]

Before the players refuse to play, and before they all demand a trade, and before the fans refuse to renew season tickets...in other words, before this situation gets even uglier, Donald Sterling need to put the team up for sale, and get out of the NBA. I don't know why that clown wants to own an NBA team in the first place, considering his views.

And it would be even better if Sterling sold the Clippers to a consortium headed by Magic Johnson. Magic seems to be doing quite well owning and operating the Dodgers....why not the Clips too?

Adam Silver should beg, cajole and threaten Sterling into selling the team to Magic.

[WTF]

Yes the owners need to respond to the issue, yes advertisers need to pull out not just the Clippers organization but the entire league.

I think the team should play but I would like to see them play in uniforms without the Clippers name on them. Fans should burn their uniforms immediately.

The league and owners bare some of the blame for this the league just lost a big chunk of credibility big time.

[WTF]

I'm act the point I don't care who we draft, hire as GM or as coach. Just let it make freaking sense rather it works or fail.

[WTF]

Sour Cynic. You been going on and on forever about how much you don't like G.Monroe. The fact of the matter is you're WRONG as HELL!!


Who does Josh Smith game remind you of?? NOBODY!! Because he not great at any 1 skill set.Josh Smith is too dumb to play small forward and too dumb to play power forward. Josh Smith got 3 things going for him. He don't have A position but he A good athlete/basketball player. He likes to play defense and he not afraid of anything. Josh Smith is A BULL DOG!!! Smith need A system team. 5 perfect teams for Smith. 1. Spurs, 2. Spurs, 3. Spurs, 4. Chicago, 5. Dallas. Smith would do good on these system team who will do most of the thinking for him.


Greg Monroe is 100% Different. Greg has A defined position. Center/Power Forward. Greg is going to play the same why at Center or power forward. Greg has A high basketball IQ. If I'm G.Monroe I look at two players.  Z.Randolph and Al Jefferson. If Greg works hard and starts to take defense serious, he should be just as good as these two players if not better.

The Josh Smith/G.Monre debate starts and ends there. Greg is the better fit for the Pistons future hands down. The Pistons have to move on from J.Smith.

Potentially who could be as good if not better than both Z-Bo and Jefferson but it ain't gonna happen. Right now Moose is the worst starting PF in the league.

Again the choice isn't Josh or Moose, its Moose or Drummond and the BTW how you just describe Josh reminds you of who? a player that went by the name Worm. Moose reminds me of Brian Williams aka Bison Dele except Bison could play defense when he wanted to Moose can't play defense at all.

[cool breeze]

If it is true that Kerr is willing to accept a coaching job in a difficult situation with New York, then perhaps he would be more interested in a GM job for a team with more promise. If the task force hired by Gores didn't make a stop at Kerr's house then we will all know that this entire crew is inept. I would hire Kerr as head coach and GM or whichever position he wanted. This guy has the smartest basketball mind currently living as a human being. I cannot get over how well he knows the college players and every pro player and how they fit in with their teams. And I really liked what Kerr did in Phoenix when the owner and his bean counter brain trust started butting their heads in where they didn't belong. Kerr can defeat those people with his knowledge and communication skills. In other words he knows what he is talking about and will not take any crap from people who don't know that they don't know. 

Kerr made an interesting comment while the Toronto - Nets game was in full swing. He mentioned how beat up the Toronto players were and then gave a great description of how playoff basketball differs from regular season ball. First off there can be no slacking off in the playoff games. Secondly, the games are a lot more physical. Why are the games physical? Teams want to run the stuff that got them in the playoffs offensively. The team that is playing against you perform intensive scouting that isn't done during the regular season. The players are good enough on the defensive end who are part of a playoff team so they usually are successful in taking advantage of every weakness. Now go back to the last time Detroit made the playoffs. Detroit had an undersized power forward that Joe Dumars had groomed to be the next starting power forward. His name was Jason Maxiell. Jason had no ability to hit a jump shot at the time. And he was not a good defensive rebounder and was especially weak at protecting the weak side on defense. That position was Detroit's biggest weakness at the time. Dumars had stacked the deck to make sure Maxiell was going to become part of the rebuilding process. Cleveland took Maxiell apart and humiliated him in every game. Do any of you remember that? So I thought that over the summer our GM would have accepted that he was wrong and attempt to cover the power forward and center positions. Nothing happened because Joe was determined Maxiell was going to succeed. This is exactly what Dumars did with Stuckey and Bynum. If those two ever did make the playoffs, intensive scouting of the Piston team would reveal that if you take away either of those guards ability to put the ball on the floor, they would stink it up. And both are absent minded defenders. You would attack both of those players because what you see is what you get with those two guys. They cannot kick up their intensity on the defensive end to match the energy of their opponent. Bynum cannot defend any guard in the NBA in the regular season so he would have to sit the bench for any series in playoff basketball. And his only strength is dribbling the basketball around and finding some lazy defender who is not paying attention and then driving the ball towards the basket. So the opposing team would give Bynum a lot of space and encourage him to put up a lot of long range jump shots. He would be forced to dribble around the perimeter until the shot clock expired. Then on every possession, the opposing team would attack Will Bynum. Anyone with half a brain should know what would happen if Bynum, Jennings or Stuckey did play for Detroit in a playoff situation. Bynum and Jennings especially would look so bad it would be extreme humiliation for them and the team. So why would a GM or owner for that matter ever sign young players like Jennings who had demonstrated his weaknesses on defense while playing in the playoffs with the Bucks? It is puzzling that this owner and Joe Dumars would ever sign Jennings and Bynum last summer if they were really interested in creating a winning program. Does Gores like a circus act more than a real basketball team? It is a good thing Detroit didn't make the playoffs. None of our players are capable of playing playoff style games. Maybe prospective GM candidates have determined that the Pistons are a lost cause because of the current contracts and the fact that if you don't get quick results you are going to be fired quick by this owner.

[Phil-Good]

Sour Cynic. You been going on and on forever about how much you don't like G.Monroe. The fact of the matter is you're WRONG as HELL!!


Who does Josh Smith game remind you of?? NOBODY!! Because he not great at any 1 skill set.Josh Smith is too dumb to play small forward and too dumb to play power forward. Josh Smith got 3 things going for him. He don't have A position but he A good athlete/basketball player. He likes to play defense and he not afraid of anything. Josh Smith is A BULL DOG!!! Smith need A system team. 5 perfect teams for Smith. 1. Spurs, 2. Spurs, 3. Spurs, 4. Chicago, 5. Dallas. Smith would do good on these system team who will do most of the thinking for him.


Greg Monroe is 100% Different. Greg has A defined position. Center/Power Forward. Greg is going to play the same why at Center or power forward. Greg has A high basketball IQ. If I'm G.Monroe I look at two players. Z.Randolph and Al Jefferson. If Greg works hard and starts to take defense serious, he should be just as good as these two players if not better.

The Josh Smith/G.Monre debate starts and ends there. Greg is the better fit for the Pistons future hands down. The Pistons have to move on from J.Smith.

[WTF]

Monroe vs Josh? Are you serious... this isn't even close!!!

1. Monroe is younger!
2. Monroe is more valuable! Moving Smith will always be at a loss because he's been fully exposed! He wanted to be a SF because he is ineffective as a PF! Have any of you looked at him lately? He's a little bigger than Prince, he'll be destroyed at PF, and he's a joke at SF! Monroe is big and getting bigger and stronger! Translation for those that don't speak basketball... he's WAY more valuable to us to keep or trade!
3. Monroe at least has one position that he can play!

1. That's still not a valid reason
2. Only in trade is Monroe more valuable until the team decides what center they want Moose or Andre
3. Josh spent most of his career in Atlanta playing PF and did it quite well, and the bigger Monroe gets the more fat and lazy he'll become and we know what that means defensively.   I really don't recall Josh getting his ass whipped when in the PF spot but I did see every PF in the league whip on Moose's.  Getting bigger and stronger would be wonderful if he exclusively played the center spot but what do you do with the franchised center?

I have said from the first day I started yelping to trade Moose is it not about a choice of Moose vs Josh but one of Moose vs Andre.  Keeping Josh at PF with either in the center is a no brain solution.  Josh not being able to play PF defensively has already been disproved.

[deusXango]

NBADraft. net and Hoopshype.com both have us taking Gary Harris at #8 and Kyle Anderson going #9...I have a problem with that. I'm a big State fan, but a bigger Pistons fan and drafting a 6' 4" SG/PG (who's compared to O.J. Mayo) ahead of a 6' 9" PG/SF (who's compared to Jalen Rose) is madness, and smacks of homerism. I'd rather have a PG than a SG, plus he's not an undersized PG and he can play SF for us. I'm taking Rose over Mayo all day.

I proposed dumping our monetary sinkholes (Smith, Monroe, Jennings, and Jerebko) for promising youth in my earlier post because I don't think we can loose at this point; turn the young bucks loose and let them learn the pro game on the fly...allow them to develop their own chemistry on & off the floor. I can see Drummond and Gordon learning to play smothering defense together, under the right coach, and suddenly our perimeter shooters are the strong points of this team with McDermott, Stauskas, Anderson, KCP, Singler, Datome, and Harrellson. Really, those guys have what it takes to become highly efficient scorers in this league. What will Mitchell turn into? What will Siva's sophomore season be like? Is there a ball hog in the bunch? This is Drummonds team!

I'm taking Rose over Mayo because I've had it with "combo guards" and #8 is too high for a Gary Harris...he's not a nightmare matchup, but Anderson is. SG/PG vs. PG/SF, you take your pick.

[Oracle]

Absolutely GREAT defense down the stretch!!!

On to OT!

[WTF]

I'm loving this Portland team.

[Oracle]

Monroe vs Josh? Are you serious... this isn't even close!!!

1. Monroe is younger!
2. Monroe is more valuable! Moving Smith will always be at a loss because he's been fully exposed! He wanted to be a SF because he is ineffective as a PF! Have any of you looked at him lately? He's a little bigger than Prince, he'll be destroyed at PF, and he's a joke at SF! Monroe is big and getting bigger and stronger! Translation for those that don't speak basketball... he's WAY more valuable to us to keep or trade!
3. Monroe at least has one position that he can play!

Sorry, we need to get what we can for josh and move on, he's the least likely to fit into any conceivable future of this team!

Jason Maxiell vs Josh:  Maxiell wins in a close one! Josh is a better player with many more tools, but Maxiell is 10 times smarter, so even though he has less tools, he delivers more than Josh can on any given night!

DX, Bias? If you can't see that Monroe is more valuable than Josh and you still believe that given a choice he's the one you keep, then by definition, you're the biased one!

BTW, I guarantee that the number of teams wanting Monroe far out strips the one(or two) that may have interest in Josh, and Josh may likely be in Jennings territory... I think they call it cancer of the locker room!

DX on BK7: Are the fans like Dumars?  We got rid of a turnover prone guard? No we didn't we got rid a young player that was good where we needed, and were blinded by the fact that a lot of young players need time to develop!

BK7 handled the rock a LOT more with the Bucks, but ended up wit a paltry 2.6 turnovers per game! He pumped out about 5 assists per game, while scoring near 18 PPG! All better numbers than Jennings except for assists in about the same number of minutes with a few years less experience!

Listen to Zeke! Judge young players by what the do best, and teach them the rest! Joe over reacts regularly on some players and under reacts on others... don't follow his example!

[cool breeze]

...why in the hell are so many biased fans in lockstep to keep Greg Monroe and dump Josh Smith? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and it's been "NO" to Josh Smith, from the very beginning...he's a locker room cancer, he makes too much money, he takes too many long shots to be such a poor shooter, and on & on, but he's never been thought of as a replacement for Jason Maxiell. I'm going to say it out loud, anyone who thinks Jason Maxiell is a better or more valuable player than Smith is deluded!! I read somewhere that someone thought Maxiell was smarter than Smith...pleeeease! The sad fact is now that Drummond has been prematurely thrust into the starting lineup, if one goes, both should go, for the benefit of the team.

Let's go back in time a couple of years; if we had a starting frontline of Monroe, Smith, and Prince, would our record have been so pitiful? Monroe was our starting center with absolutely no one to play the interior with him, that was athletic and skilled...the occasional blocked shot and "thunder dunk" by a 6' 7" PF didn't make him any more than a stop gap measure, yet we competed. Those "Frankenstein" lineups, where over half the team was being played out of position to disguise Joe's incompetence in balancing a roster, were to be behind us, as was playing "small ball." This is what doomed the Pistons for two of the last three wasted seasons...players out of position and "small ball." We love Andre because he's ours and we see the potential in him, but there's no way in hell he should have started the season as our starting center (not with Monroe still on the roster!) and Monroe shouldn't have been forced to play PF (anymore than SF!); once Monroe was removed from playing center, he was out of position, and Smith was lost at SF (which out of the three, he bears the brunt of the blame for it's shortcomings...oddly enough, not the fired, dumb ass coach who called that shot, and the relived GM who oversaw that mess). If Singler was to start, it should have been at SF and no place else...when a team carries as many guards on its' roster as we carried, there's no excuse for a SF playing guard!

Don has said repeatedly, and I wholeheartedly agree, that our piss-poor guard play make it impossible to fairly judge the play of our big men...we got rid of a turnover prone PG, albeit a defensive demon compared to who replaced him, and a far more cerebral player. He just wasn't as flashy, but flashy don't win games; defense and intelligence does! IMHO it'll be hard to find a worse PG prospect going forward and hoping that Jennings will magically, miraculously change his f#cked up game is just a pipe dream...he's trade bait...if Knight and Middleton was trade bait, he damn sure qualifies.

It's one thing to b!tch about something, but if you have no solutions to offer (no matter how wild they may sound, but solutions to a problem) your argument is weak; I propose that we take the last year of our drafting for a while, and the resources we have (which are numerous) and build the most athletic, smart, hard-working, defensive minded/highly skilled, team we can around Andre Drummond, and these are the players I'm willing to give up to meet those ends: Monroe (sign & trade) Smith, Jennings, and Jerebko (trade); IMO those four players should net us three mid first round picks, which I'd use, along with our #8 (hopefully we keep it) to acquire these four players.
1. Aaron Gordon PF
2. Doug McDermott SF
3. Nik Stauskas SG
4. Kyle Anderson PG/SF
As Drummond is growing into the center that's impossible to contend with, on the boards, I expect Gordon to grow into the same type force defensively for us, playing alongside Drummond (I don't care to hear about the poor FT shooting at this point of their development). McDermott and Stauskas are the top two shooters in the country and are both pro-ready; both these players can learn defense from the right coach teaching them. Anderson is a downright nightmare as a PG, particularly in the half court where playoff basketball is played. We've seen what MCW can do, and what Shaun Livingston means to the Nets, both are 6' 6" or over, with ball handling skills, high B-ball I.Q.'s, and extremely good passers. We've become mesmerized by fleet footed ball hogs who barrel down the floor to the hoop, totally ignoring their team mates, and call it a fast break, but advancing the ball down the floor with heads up crisp passing is much faster than any man can run from end-to-end. We've still got Singler, Siva, Mitchell, Datome, and Harrellson to make up a young core of Pistons. For the penny-pinching bean counters, look at how the payroll has dropped and signing Drummond to a max deal won't hurt. Look at me playing GM.    We need a real one and real soon, this pussy footing around is getting on my nerves...the only problem I have with Tom Gores is he knew Joe's ass was out the door, once he consulted with Phil Jackson, why in the hell didn't his search for a GM begin then? I guess all genius is flawed.

Good post dX. 

I enjoyed most of it. I am not sure who said Jason Maxiell was a smarter player than Smith but there could be some truth to that if you asked Smith's teammates in Atlanta. Maxiell had two fatal flaws. He couldn't shoot very well and he was too damn small to play either big man role in the NBA. He came into the league with very limited stills on the offensive end so nobody had to guard him on the other team. Smith, on the other hand is a threat on offense. He can post up and finish well if his brain is actually tuned into playing basketball. A lot of the time his brain is malfunctioning. That is where Maxiell was superior to Smith. Smith is by far the superior offensive threat, rebounder and defender over Maxiell. But Max did know his role on the team and it seems that Smith doesn't know ( or couldn't accept) his role which has to be defined as being the best overall player who listens to the game plan and tries to stay within the framework of the offense and defensive game plan.  Maxiell was never a good player but by God he got to his spots on the floor and tried to set screens and knew how to rotate and fill the holes on defense and followed the coach's game play really close as a real pro should. Smith's biggest defect that I saw last season is that he is impulsive on defense and offense playing like a rookie some of the time. On a young team, Smith just cannot jack up the long ball early in the shot clock. He must pass the ball get down in the post and demand the basketball. If he gets it, he can pass well out of double team and he has all the necessary shots to be a threat if he isn't doubled. But being the top dog or the best player who demands the double team most of the time is a heavy weight to carry especially on such a young team or a team with vets who have no idea what they are doing even after being in the league for a long time. We lack the right compliment of vets who show they are stable mentally in all the games. I think we all believe now that the younger guys would be much further along now if Dumars and the absentee owner had picked out stable vets like Andre Miller, Darren Collison or several others who were available within the last 3 years. Or if management had looked into obtaining the young but smart Vasquez things would have been different. Smith may not be a great fit for this team because he is a guy who cannot lead the young. Smith is a loner type. Notice the young guys don't mention him at all when they are interviewed with the exception of Jennings. Smith obviously would be very effective on a more veteran team. I think the pressure of being the MAN got to him and he knew from training camp that the point guards were horrible players.  Joe Dumars decided to stand firm on his guys Stuckey and Bynum while adding another dysfunctional horrible defender from the Bucks, BJ. Why didn't the owner question that decision? Why didn't his wing tip shoe co owners check out why the Bucks had no interest in signing Jennings? And why did the owner sign on to giving away Middleton and Knight when they just could have signed Jennings without making any trade at all? Knight and Middleton were not making that much cash. No it was because the owner loves Will Bynum as much as Dumars loves Stuckey. How could those two vets get playing time if Knight and Middleton were on the team???We can create anything we want to when trying to figure out how Gores and Dumars make their decisions. There is no logic to it at all. They base their decisions on emotion. The owner and Joe Dumars made insane calls much like a small child might make when it comes too eating a ton of sweets. This two year contract they gave Bynum is laughable. Who would give Will a two year contract in this entire league for close to 3 mil based on his play before last summer???

 Smith had the pressure on him big time and because there were so many young guys who had never played a lick of defense (I include Drummond here) the writing was on the wall in training camp after the first three days. Mo Cheeks got a good look at his players and must have stuck his finger down his throat right then. Of course Dumars and Gores made those bogus decisions that Cheeks pointed out to them and those two then made Cheeks the problem. When Bynum was finally benched, Gores saw red and reacted with another coach firing scam.  Who knows how the players might look now if Cheeks had been able to finish the season? You can bet that Siva would have seen more playing time. He is the one bright spot for me. I thought he really did a great job in his last tryout with two weeks to go in the season. We all know the real problem is not Smith. It is the Suits who make all the big decisions on which players will be Pistons. I have no confidence that the owners will be able to pick a good GM. I think this team will flounder for years to come based on what happened this past year. Has anyone knocked on the foreheads of the  owners and said "is anyone in there McFly? Our only chance to see improvement will have to be hiring a GM who is highly respected and cannot be pushed around by the bean counters. Then I also like the idea of a coach like George Karl. He won't take any crap from upper management.

[Murph]

The Pistons should keep both Smith and Monroe, and bring one of them off the bench. The Pistons should have an honest, open competition between Monoe and Smith, and bring the loser of the competition off the bench.

But I agree with Oracle, what we need more than anything else is a good PG. Until we have a PG that can run an offense and defend, everything else is like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titiantic.   

We also need a proven, veteran, defensive minded coach like George Karl.   

[WTF]

DX, because they are already to keep making the same mistakes over and over. We are already 4 years in with Monroe and there has been absolutely nothing proving he will get remotely better any time soon, or indicating he hasn't already peaked as a player. It's the same sh!t of hoping one day they'll play how they've imagine. It's been 4 straight seasons of inconsistency and laziness with Moose but now they think all of a sudden that its going to change so offer him a max deal.

I promise they'll look up and they'll be talking about Moose like they talk about Stuckey and Charlie V if not worse.

They don't want to fix the issue they just want to keep making Moose into a PF when he's obviously not just to force the pairing of 2 centers that will never consistently work. Moose was a good center for us, so why not draft or get a PF to play next to him? Joe decided we need another center instead. Then dumb ass gets a PF then decide to make him a SF and everyone wants to trade away the only real and decent PF on the team. Sh!t doesn't make sense to me!   

[deusXango]

...why in the hell are so many biased fans in lockstep to keep Greg Monroe and dump Josh Smith? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and it's been "NO" to Josh Smith, from the very beginning...he's a locker room cancer, he makes too much money, he takes too many long shots to be such a poor shooter, and on & on, but he's never been thought of as a replacement for Jason Maxiell. I'm going to say it out loud, anyone who thinks Jason Maxiell is a better or more valuable player than Smith is deluded!! I read somewhere that someone thought Maxiell was smarter than Smith...pleeeease! The sad fact is now that Drummond has been prematurely thrust into the starting lineup, if one goes, both should go, for the benefit of the team.

Let's go back in time a couple of years; if we had a starting frontline of Monroe, Smith, and Prince, would our record have been so pitiful? Monroe was our starting center with absolutely no one to play the interior with him, that was athletic and skilled...the occasional blocked shot and "thunder dunk" by a 6' 7" PF didn't make him any more than a stop gap measure, yet we competed. Those "Frankenstein" lineups, where over half the team was being played out of position to disguise Joe's incompetence in balancing a roster, were to be behind us, as was playing "small ball." This is what doomed the Pistons for two of the last three wasted seasons...players out of position and "small ball." We love Andre because he's ours and we see the potential in him, but there's no way in hell he should have started the season as our starting center (not with Monroe still on the roster!) and Monroe shouldn't have been forced to play PF (anymore than SF!); once Monroe was removed from playing center, he was out of position, and Smith was lost at SF (which out of the three, he bears the brunt of the blame for it's shortcomings...oddly enough, not the fired, dumb ass coach who called that shot, and the relived GM who oversaw that mess). If Singler was to start, it should have been at SF and no place else...when a team carries as many guards on its' roster as we carried, there's no excuse for a SF playing guard!

Don has said repeatedly, and I wholeheartedly agree, that our piss-poor guard play make it impossible to fairly judge the play of our big men...we got rid of a turnover prone PG, albeit a defensive demon compared to who replaced him, and a far more cerebral player. He just wasn't as flashy, but flashy don't win games; defense and intelligence does! IMHO it'll be hard to find a worse PG prospect going forward and hoping that Jennings will magically, miraculously change his f#cked up game is just a pipe dream...he's trade bait...if Knight and Middleton was trade bait, he damn sure qualifies.

It's one thing to b!tch about something, but if you have no solutions to offer (no matter how wild they may sound, but solutions to a problem) your argument is weak; I propose that we take the last year of our drafting for a while, and the resources we have (which are numerous) and build the most athletic, smart, hard-working, defensive minded/highly skilled, team we can around Andre Drummond, and these are the players I'm willing to give up to meet those ends: Monroe (sign & trade) Smith, Jennings, and Jerebko (trade); IMO those four players should net us three mid first round picks, which I'd use, along with our #8 (hopefully we keep it) to acquire these four players.
1. Aaron Gordon PF
2. Doug McDermott SF
3. Nik Stauskas SG
4. Kyle Anderson PG/SF
As Drummond is growing into the center that's impossible to contend with, on the boards, I expect Gordon to grow into the same type force defensively for us, playing alongside Drummond (I don't care to hear about the poor FT shooting at this point of their development). McDermott and Stauskas are the top two shooters in the country and are both pro-ready; both these players can learn defense from the right coach teaching them. Anderson is a downright nightmare as a PG, particularly in the half court where playoff basketball is played. We've seen what MCW can do, and what Shaun Livingston means to the Nets, both are 6' 6" or over, with ball handling skills, high B-ball I.Q.'s, and extremely good passers. We've become mesmerized by fleet footed ball hogs who barrel down the floor to the hoop, totally ignoring their team mates, and call it a fast break, but advancing the ball down the floor with heads up crisp passing is much faster than any man can run from end-to-end. We've still got Singler, Siva, Mitchell, Datome, and Harrellson to make up a young core of Pistons. For the penny-pinching bean counters, look at how the payroll has dropped and signing Drummond to a max deal won't hurt. Look at me playing GM.    We need a real one and real soon, this pussy footing around is getting on my nerves...the only problem I have with Tom Gores is he knew Joe's ass was out the door, once he consulted with Phil Jackson, why in the hell didn't his search for a GM begin then? I guess all genius is flawed.

[WTF]

Wise, Josh does stick out like a sore thumb!

He's a lot older than the core, yet he needs as much or more guidance to function properly, so saying he needed more structure is true, but it's sad that's the case.

Having said that, Don was right earlier, when he said it's hard to judge most players due to the lack of any decent PG play! It's hard to blame the passengers when a dude like Jennings is driving!

I don't think there is any question that Josh can be useful, the question is if it makes sense for us to try!

If you think Monroe doesn't fit, it's hard to see, using similar logic, that you can reason that Josh fits. They both have major holes in their game that are incompatible with where this team needs to go.

The only difference is that Monroe is younger!

Oracle if the idea is to win sooner rather than later than you keep Josh if not than you try to move him for much younger players. I know you keep bringing up the point with age and Monroe being younger but I wouldn't find that as real valid argument to keep him. IMO he is what he is 4 years in and I don't see him changing any time soon and I don't think the team need to pay him on what they think he might become.

I don't question Monroe talent offensively I question rather Moose and Andre really work together as starting PF and C. I question if Moose work ethics will ever improve because he's lazy on both ends of the floor and that has nothing to do with the questionable PG play. These are individual traits they may or may not change over time and do we really want to see if it pains out in the team favor while paying him 6o million over 4 seasons.

On the other hand Josh can be controlled, and he's clearly the better option in a win sooner rather than later scenario. Josh isn't lazy and a far better PF than Moose is, but if the idea is to pussy foot around the next 4 season than they should trade him to a team that has a chance to win a title or at least one that's contending.

Truthfully I'm not oppose to trading any player on this team and that includes Andre if it put the team in a position to win now. Personally I would love to put all the right pieces around Andre, and Josh and see what happens. I think Don a little over the top in his criticism of Josh if the sun doesn't rises tomorrow Don would somehow come up with a play where a Josh mistake affected the rotation of the Earth causing the Sun be late getting us   

[WTF]

Sterling is an idiot racist and he will never be anything more than that. This hasn't been the first time he's been accused of this and he'll likely lay in his dying bed saying one more racist comment with his last breath.

I agree with Doc and the players to continue playing for their dream of the finals, but after this season anyone black on the team should be screaming to be traded. Fans should not renew season tickets unless the team is sold to new owners and Sterling should be banned from ever stepping in that arena again be it a Clippers or Lakers game.

I love all people and this racism sh!t really needs to stop, in fact all types of division needs to stop be it in politics, religion and class because they're just as bad as racism as well. We should be able to laugh and joke about our differences but at the same time respect those difference and not impose our differences on to others.

[Oracle]

That's it, this turkey is DONE!

The NBA better get rid of him ASAP, or there's going to be a big problem.

I listened to the audio, and it's clear this man is a complete and total racist!

He's been convicted of discrimination against Blacks, Mexicans, Koreans and families with children! That alone should have disqualified him, but this is the last straw!

It's bye Sterling or Bye NBA!

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