Comments on: Patrick Hayes’ 2010-11 season preview

By: Laser

Laser — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:22:03 +0000

@hayes: i dunno if there are too many teams where we can afford to have ZERO inside presence. from a balance standpoint, i think the platoon is the best option most nights.

as for the cavs, i’m reserving judgment too. all i ever said is that there’s no reason to assume they’ll be worse than us. no reason in the world. look at their front line, their point play. they have good role players, everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing in the game. they have a coach! they have plenty. but as we saw last night, there could be a lot of teams in the east who’ve been written off who will be MUCH better than we are. 7-8 are up for grabs, but i don’t think the pistons have much of a chance. the cavs and nets on the other hand…

By: Laser

Laser — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:17:30 +0000

yes, pcb. by george you’ve got it! he doesn’t belong on that unit. he’s an offensive player who’s the fourth option. he’s going to be tentative playing out of position and with all those veterans. he might be “better” than charlie v, but there are a great many reasons he should not have been named the starter.

as a young, developing, important player, he should not be played out of position. and as an offensive player, he should be no worse than a second or third option. and giving him the starting position gives him nowhere to go but down. demote him and you shake his confidence. also, when do you pull the plug? the job should have been charlie v’s. that way, if things go wrong, it’s not like the guy’s going to be rattled by another demotion. make the guy earn his salary. he shouldn’t be playing just 23 minutes, and we shouldn’t play daye at PF if it means monroe’s squeezed out. daye may be the better player there, too, but he’s not a PF.

this is kind of depressing.

By: detroitpcb

detroitpcb — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:14:43 +0000

@laser

yeah, Daye didn’t look to good against Favors and he missed a few shots. I think he was nervous and playing out of position is not going to be good for him. Not sure that starting will be good for him either since he needs to be aggressive to be effective but running with all the vets will make him hesitent. He is really the fourth option on that unit.

I think they should start CV at power forward. I pointed out that Max would take minutes from Cv as the season went along because he is their only defender off the bench. Now it looks like he will eat Daye’s minutes, not Cv’s. That would be fine except Daye has to play somewhere. What position is he going to get minutes at? He is blocked at the 2 and the 3

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:12:24 +0000

@Laser 2:
As far as the Cavs, I’m holding off on them. With Mo Williams, Hickson, Jamison, Varejao, they can be solid. Not more than a 7 or 8 seed, but solid nonetheless. And I fully expect them to start the season strong after listening to a summer full of talk about them being a one-man show.
But I also expect them to not be able to play at a high enough level all season to make the playoffs, and when it becomes apparent that they aren’t able to contend, I expect that they’ll shop high priced/low ceiling vets like Jamison and Williams at the deadline. I also think a line of contenders will line up to offer them good deals for Varejao, particularly a team like OKC that has a stockpile of draft picks and upside players who are stuck on the bench and have a great need for a big who defends like Varejao. I think people are on the Thunder too much (they still can’t beat LA), but Varejao would be a game changer for them.
Cleveland’s not gonna get another superstar in free agency, especially after Gilbert’s letter fiasco. Best bet for them is to move their expensive assets, who do have value unlike Hamilton/Gordon/etc, and try to hit it big in the lottery again. They could end up with another Ohio native like Jared Sullenger.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:06:45 +0000

@Laser:
“the one thing they did that i predicted (besides lose) is platoon max and ben. frankly, they don’t have any other options. but it means that as long as daye is one of your PFs, monroe won’t play.”
Maybe you’re right. But with a dominant post player like Lopez, Maxiell or Wallace had to be in the game at all times. I’m not sure that will be as great a necessity if they are playing a Bargnani-Evans or McGee-Blatche combo. Monroe will get into some games against frontcourts that don’t have a player that commands the attention Lopez does.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:03:37 +0000

@PCB:
“It was sad to see Avery Johnson school Q like that.”
Kuester wasn’t perfect down the stretch. But he didn’t miss five of seven free throws down the stretch, and he didn’t let Harris dive past three Pistons to tap the ball out to Morrow for the game winning shot.
Kuester didn’t lose the game. There were certainly things he did that I scratched my head about, but the Pistons players simply didn’t make a couple easy plays that should’ve sealed what would’ve been a nice road win.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:00:37 +0000

@nuetes:
“The Spurs? Really? Is Taigo Splitter the difference?”
I think Splitter is really good. And you’re right, they didn’t make any other additions really, but I think Blair and Hill are two young guys who can improve greatly this season. And Parker is in a contract year and coming off a bad season. I expect him to be really motivated. All depends on Ginobili staying healthy, but with Duncan, Splitter, Blair and McDyess, the Spurs have the bigs to compete with LA out West.
I don’t know if they’ll win, but I would LOVE a Boston-SA finals. A dream for defensive-minded basketball enthusiasts.

By: Laser

Laser — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:16:10 +0000

ah. and the cavs beat the celtics tonight. yes, the celts played last night, but don’t take this away from the cavs. i’ve said all along there’s no reason to believe they’ll be any worse than us, and it looks like they might be a LOT better.

By: Laser

Laser — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:13:09 +0000

this is one of the benefits of having an actual coach. in one sense i understand in theory that dumars didn’t want to make a major commitment to an expensive coach, but on the other hand, i don’t know how the team’s supposed to get going without one. this is such a non-traditional, mismatched AND bad lineup that i’d be surprised if anyone could turn it into a winner. but kuester has no hope. it would be nice if this team could just get going already, but no.

also, the pistons were sort of a jekyll-and-hyde when it came to their offense tonight. one minute they’re sharing the ball LIKE CRAZY, passing and moving and passing again and moving constantly (to be honest, probably a bit too much of that, but it’s better than…) the next minute it’s all isos. this is because these players don’t have established roles. that’s not a bad thing if you have exceptionally talented and creative players, but we don’t.

and your boy daye missed about thirty shots before his first make. he’s the nominal starter; he’ll be there at the beginning, but most nights he’ll be nowhere to be seen between the first time he sits and the second half. i hate when the pistons do that, and they’ve been doing that for a while now. just start charlie v already. but do yourself a favor and stop talking about him like he’s kevin durant; nobody will take you seriously.

the one thing they did that i predicted (besides lose) is platoon max and ben. frankly, they don’t have any other options. but it means that as long as daye is one of your PFs, monroe won’t play. it would make more sense to play fewer guards, shift daye to the backup 3 spot and platoon monroe and cv at the 4. and for that very reason (that it makes sense) it won’t happen. thanks joe! thanks q! there won’t be a WHOLE lot of highly winnable games this season, but we sure were determined to letting this one slip away.

oddly enough, the thing i liked most about this one, maybe the only thing i was actually impressed with, was T-MAC of all things! i mean, i still don’t know why he’s here, but i sure liked what he did. he stayed within himself for the most part, made good decisions with the ball. but if we’re going to play him, someone else needs to go. this was the first of many games that will confirm everything that’s wrong with this team, and in the backcourt it’s that there are too many guys who basically do the same thing. take stuckey for example. he had like 12 and 7 in the first half. he had like 14 and 7 for the game. no defined roles. everyone trying to do everything. somebody has to run the show, everyone needs to know what they’re supposed to be doing, and it’s not “everything.”

By: detroitpcb

detroitpcb — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:48:44 +0000

did you guys watch the end of that game tonight with NJ. It was sad to see Avery Johnson school Q like that. You know he was thinking of that job interview/negociation while he exposed Dumar’s hire. Sad

So now we know that we will be unable to keep Ben Wallace on the floor to finish games. And we know that Q is going to defer to the vets and play that small lineup were he moves Rip to the 3, Prince to the 4, and plays Stuckey & Ben Gordon at the guards. And we know that either by design or by lapse, the Pistons after moving the ball fairly well all game are going to revert to one on one isolations in the crunch. And we also know they don’t have a player good enough to do that unless it is Austin Daye.

they made Favors look great in the second quarter – another athletic big torching the Pistons. But how about that kid Lopez? What great hands he has and how well he finishes while leaning toward the basket. Ben was working him over and mostly doing a fine job on D – Lopez is just too good.