Comments on: Despite spectacular Blake Griffin dunks and Eric Gordon’s offense, Pistons hold on to get first road win of the season

By: Laser

Laser — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:48:07 +0000

yeah he does play it SUPER safe as a passer. as in, has he made one “good pass” yet this season? i mean, he’s actually dropped the ball off to a big man once or twice, and a few games ago he decided to try drive-and-kick a few times in the same game! but no impressive passes that display court vision, awareness, playmaking instincts. it’s easy to take care of the ball when all of your passes are around the horn. worst passing PG in the league?

By: nuetes

nuetes — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:47:24 +0000

c’mon Patrick we all know that’s never going to happen. It might come back to what Laser was going on about. Decision making. Just as decision making is important in passing it’s important in shooting. Stuckey does deserve some credit for his assist/to ratio, and his ability to avoid turnovers. That’s also part of his decision making. He plays it super safe as a passer, but reckless as a scorer.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:45:47 +0000

@Laser
My point isn’t that he needs to score more. He needs to finish much better. Rondo, Nash, Parker, all those playmaking guys, shoot close to 50 percent or even a little over 50 percent sometimes.
If his scoring average dipped to 12 or 13 a game, but he was hitting 48-50 percent of his shots, he’d be a much better player.

By: Rob Wessels

Rob Wessels — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:54:51 +0000

The Central played fantastic. Chicago is done for this season they can’t cover well.

Go Central

By: Laser

Laser — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 08:28:55 +0000

i could care less about stuckey’s shooting. we have shooters. all we have are shooters. i know he needs to be a threat, but i’m not concerned with his scoring. he can score, and he can shoot well enough to be a threat. look at rondo. even when nobody respected his shot, he made great plays. he read the floor, read the defense, made the right pass at the right time. i’m concerned with his ability not only to make the “right” decision more often (and maybe he’s a bit improved in that area) but to use his physical tools to make other people better. nash used to always penetrate to pass, but since there’s four other players on the floor, you never know where he’s going to send it (and our outside shooters are at least a credible threat). if a guard always penetrates to score, like stuckey, you know exactly where he’s going. give me a progression as a distributor, then we’ll talk 3 pointer. and if he can do it all, he’ll be elite. but he won’t.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 02:52:14 +0000

@nuetes:
Other than my issue with Boozer that I expressed above, Chicago also has a major weakness that he won’t address. Other than Korver, they don’t have good perimeter shooting. When Boozer is healthy, their offense is going to consist of Rose attacking the basket or Boozer posting up. For either style to be really successful, they have to have shooters on the floor to get better spacing. People can cheat inside off of Deng and Brewer, and Boozer is already an undersized PF height-wise, so he’ll have things tougher in Chicago than he did in Utah, a team that’s always had great spacing.
Milwaukee will get better if Bogut gets healthier. I hated the Gooden signing and Salmons extension. Salmons is fine, but he and Maggette are a bit redundant, and playing both of them at the same time means Delfino, who might actually be better than both of them, gets squeezed. They’re still good, they just don’t have pieces that fit into roles as well as they did last year.
Indiana is better than I though. Cleveland I expect to fade when the whole “proving we weren’t a one man show” thing wears off. It doesn’t make sense for them to hold onto complimentary pieces that could bring back picks or expiring contracts. Contenders would be interested in Jamison, Sessions or Mo Williams, and virtually any good team in the league would have major use for Varejao.
The Central as a whole is just one division full of incomplete teams that either need a piece, have too many redundant pieces or both.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 02:45:20 +0000

@xerowatt:
Getting to the line 5.4 times per game is respectable, and he did improve in that department last year from his second season, so that is a good sign.
My problem with him is still field goal percentage. He rarely shoots threes. He rarely shoots from outside 15 feet. He’s big, strong, and can elevate and go over people. He’s only shooting 43.5 percent this year. For the shots he’s getting, he should be in the 47-48ish range, and that’s the one area where he’s really shown no improvement throughout his career.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 02:41:41 +0000

@PCB:
Boozer is good for sure, but I’m in wait and see mode with him. If you look at his history, his production increases as he gets closer to hitting free agency. He had a great last season in Cleveland, then went to Utah and had mysterious injuries, didn’t seem that interested in playing then miraculously returned to All-Star status the last two years. He signs in Chicago, and in the first year of his long term deal, he has a weird injury reportedly tripping over a suitcase. It’s possible he’s just unlucky I guess, but I’d like to see him get over the “contract year” phenomenon that has followed him.

By: nuetes

nuetes — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 02:18:35 +0000

as far as the division goes – stealing from pcb’s post -

Chicago is missing probably their best player, even though he’s never actually played for them yet. And they lost Hinrich which is a somewhat undervalued thing that pcb pointed out. I expect them to take control of this division with a healthy Boozer. They just need to hang around for now.

Milwuakee hasn’t gotten the same production from certain players. Maggette is who he is, and I suspect has given them what they thought he would. Bench scoring and a guy that is going to get to the line a crap load. Jennings has improved though. He’s shooting better, and has higher rebound and assist totals, and lower turnover totals. I still think Milwaukee has the players to be in it, but they haven’t performed yet. Salmons is the biggest disappointment.

Cleveland is about where I thought they’d be. I think they can fight for almost .500 this year. Hickson is pretty good. It’s just going to take a lot of effort on their part to get there, and I think they are up for it because they want to prove doubters wrong. They probably work the hardest for wins of any team in the league.

Indiana is similar to the Pistons in that they rely heavily on jump shots and streaky shooting out of guys like Granger, Dunleavy, and Collison. They do have a positive point differential which suggests they could be a decent .500ish team. And Hibbert has been really good on the glass.

Detroit, well, we know.

1/10th season readjusted central finish guesstimation:

1. chicago 2. milwuakee 3. indiana 4. cleveland 5. detroit

but remember milwaukee went on a tear last year at one point going 18-4 over a 22 game stretch after acquiring salmons. they go as salmons goes and he played great for them last season. if he picks it up they’ll get back on track so i’ll still say they finish runner up in the division.

By: xerowattbulb

xerowattbulb — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 01:21:58 +0000

one thing i noticed- it seems like Stuckey is starting to get calls in his favor. i’ve thought for the last two years that if he could stick out the period of time it takes for some players to get respect from the refs, his game would go WAY up. billups had that same problem for the longest time, he just couldn’t get a call. if Stuckey keeps playing at this level, he’s a reliable three point shot away from being a top half of the league point guard….maybe even top dozen.