Comments on: Detroit Pistons let Steve Nash get a jump on his New Year’s plans in blowout loss to Phoenix

By: Laser

Laser — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:08:04 +0000

@pcb: save it. i don’t care. so he helps us once every month. i’d rather have whatever we could get for him.

also, i disagree with the notion that there truly are minutes available to be earned this season. the organization is going to play who they’re going to play. maybe our fourth big man is up in the air, but that’s it.

By: detroitpcb

detroitpcb — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:03:12 +0000

@laser

they could have used Stuckey last night

By: Laser

Laser — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:17:42 +0000

bah. i don’t want to see stuckey get a shred of credit for a win they didn’t get. this team is 3-1 without the guy and 8-21 otherwise, and he’s had the same role with a pretty darn consistent roster. but the team never jells because he’s incapable of running an nba offense. so you think he would have been an asset last night, but he’s got a good enough track record to prove he won’t consistently win games with him running the point.

By: tmac is a point forward

tmac is a point forward — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:26:00 +0000

This is why the Pistons need to use either Bynum, stucky or even Gordon to bring the ball up the floor and then dump it onto tmac and let him go to work in the half court set. Who makes a 6’9 220 pound small forward coming off a micro fracture surgery bring the ball up all game against a lightning quick team?

By: jack

jack — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:04:52 +0000

Austin day is so overrated here it’s not funny. The guy is at best a impact player off the bench in this league. Some people make him out to be a allstar or something. You rather have him taking more shots then Gordon? are you kidding me?

By: detroitpcb

detroitpcb — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:02:34 +0000

@Hayes

don’t be so touchy. i enjoy reading your columns and if i thought you were really a dipshit i wouldn’t bother. i am just ragging you for that “coach” comment.

There are two major differences between Daye and Stuckey – Daye is a smart player who sees the floor well and Daye has a great shot. Now Daye lacks lateral quickness which is always going to limit him as a defender but he understands defensive angles, positions himself well, and on occasion his length allows him to recover & block from behind after someone has beaten him off the dribble or curling around a screen. Daye also has very good hands and will get some steals.

I was never a Stuckey as point guard fan. I think it was clear from the beginning that he was a scorer who’s greatest attribute was his strength and speed and willingness to take the ball to the hole and absorb punishment. I personally believe that on-court awareness of the geometry of the floor and the positioning of teammates is something innate and something that good coaching can help develop but not produce. Stuckey did not get good coaching in college and his development in the pros has been marginal compared to what people hoped for: by now it should be evident to all that the Stuckey as point guard experiment should end.

Does that mean Will Bynum should play? I do not like midget guards and to me Bynum’s game is so ugly, his decision making so atrocious, and his on-ball defense so pitiful that he should not even be in the rotation. The next time i see him try to split a double team and lose the rock i’m going to shoot my TV. Which of course leaves T-Mac or Prince or Daye to run the offense through.

T-Mac is a very deliberate player these days. He can see over the double team but he cannot get around it. He also does not like to be harassed up the floor. As you pointed out, one problem was spacing and as i pointed out, the other problem was that Ben was used to set the screen and therefore for the pressure release pass to the top of the key and no one cares if Ben Wallace gets the ball there. You don’t have to guard him there – just make sure he does not have a driving lane all the way to the basket – so all the Pistons get out of it is another pass from Ben to the wing – to a player who is already being guarded. The other team hardly has to rotate and they can trap with no fear of the consequences.

My argument for Stuckey is that other teams fear his ability to drive to the hole, that he is the Pistons best on-ball defender, that by putting him on the floor with three shooters with 3-point range he could be a very effective player that you could build one facet of your offense around.

as far as my trade scenerios – i simply think Memphis is going to get rid of Randolph for financial reasons and offering them Prince & Wilcox gives them almost 15 million coming off the books that they can use to sign Gasol or even Mayo if they don’t trade him too. I have no idea if they would consider it. Both Prince & Wilcox could step in and play the 4 for the rest of the season. Memphis is playing poorly and might welcome Prince’s leadership and mentoring of Gay for the rest of the year.

The other trade is also improbable but Washington needs a two guard and a back up point guard and after the recent altercation the word was that Washington was going to trade one of their young bigs. Blatche & Hinrich for Hamilton & Bynum works under the cap. Flip was a big Rip fan. I mean, really, who is going to take that contract off our hands?

By: jack

jack — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:35:17 +0000

Interesting McGrady getssdoubled and tripled which actually opens the floor rfor otherws but he gets blamed. No sane player in this league would double stucky 1 because he is to stupid to even try to make a play for others and two thewy know he has no mid-range game,.

Lets not forget how god aweful stucky was looking before his stomach even gave out. McGrady should continue to start but probaly in 27 to 30 minutes and let stucky get 20 minutes as his backup.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:27:09 +0000

@PCB:
A few responses.
“glad to see that you are finally acknowledging what Stuckey does on the floor – both his penetration and his on ball defense are key for the Pistons as currently constructed.”
I’ve long acknowledged that Stuckey did those two things on the floor. The Pistons need him if the goal is to be semi-competitive. But if the goal is to be a good team, that will not happen if they build the team around Stuckey. I mean, what’s the end-game? Yeah, he can maybe help them stay in the eighth seed race against the other dregs of the East. But that’s about his ceiling as a starting player who gets a lot of minutes.
“i pointed out in previous posts that T-Mac was going to have trouble against teams that play with pace.”
Pace wasn’t a factor. The Pistons spaced the floor terribly. McGrady was actually able to see those traps coming quite often. But when he passed out of them, he was often forced to throw the ball cross-court or fit it into a bad angle, which led to turnovers.
“And i only dog him because you and laser keep insisting he should play over Stuckey which is evidence of your complate lack of basketball knowledge.”
I’m sure Laser will speak for himself, but I don’t remember myself or him making any arguments in the last eight or 10 weeks that Bynum should play over Stuckey. Did I want Bynum to win that job in camp? Yes I did. But he didn’t, and I’ve written as much early in the season. And anyway, the case was never “Bynum should play over Stuckey.” My position was always more along the lines of Bynum seemed to work harder (and in season’s past, that has been abundantly clear), so with the team going nowhere, I would rather watch the flawed player who works hard than the flawed player who everyone in the organization mistakenly branded a future franchise player.
AS far as “complete lack of basketball knowledge,” give me an effing break man. You were on here just the other day talking about how “Detroit needs to trade Prince and Maxiell to Memphis for Randolph.” Only a dipshit would think that was a viable trade the Pistons could make. I believe the other suggestion was Hamilton for Blatche or some garbage like that, which, you know, makes absolutely no sense for the other team in the trade. You don’t have to agree with my opinions, and I certainly don’t profess to be the smartest basketball mind out there, but comments like “complete lack of basketball knowledge” are just plain classless.
“and i thought Daye played well despite biting on a couple of pump fakes.”
No one played “well.” He played OK. Shot 50 percent. Rebounded. Otherwise, he played atrocious defense just like everyone else on the roster. Just because he was a couple notches above his miserable teammates doesn’t mean he played “well.”
“the other thing i notice is that Daye is not used as a primary offensive option when he comes in.”
And why shouldn’t he be? After all, he’s a career 13 points per 36 minutes scorer! Sign that man to a max deal!
“All this kid needs is minutes and some plays run for him this year to break out into a 20 point scorer next year.”
I have a full post coming on this concept later today, but damn. Why have the high expectations? Daye was a mid-first round pick. Very few guys selected in that range turn into contributing NBA players, let alone 20 ppg scorers.
I certainly hope Daye does, and he absolutely has a nice skillset offensively. But the same damn thing happened with Stuckey. He was a mid-first round pick who has become an OK NBA player, but somewhere along the way, everyone became convinced he was a hybrid of Chauncey Billups and Derrick Rose or something.
Do you realize that if Daye even averages 10 points per game in a season, he’ll be beating the odds for what typical mid-to-late first round picks do in their careers? The list of guys over the last 10 years who were picked post-lottery in the first round and don’t amount to much despite tantalizing potential is a long one.
Daye hasn’t even scored 20 points in a game yet in almost a season and a half. He’s only been in double figures 17 times out of 93 games.
I hope he’s more, I really do. But if he even develops into a solid rotation player, the Pistons should be very, very happy. To put these ridiculous “he could be a 20 ppg scorer” expectations on him right now is ridiculous, just like all of the talk about Stuckey his first couple years was ridiculous.
Potential is great. Tangible results are better.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:07:07 +0000

@lk:
“I believe he’s the most consistent player on this team”
I can’t agree with this. He’s been more consistent this year than in year’s past, but Prince has easily been their most consistent player this season, and the only others who have been kind of consistent are Stuckey and Villanueva, but both of those guys are up and down.
Anyway, at this point, consistency is not the issue. The only consistent thing about the Pistons is that they are not that good.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:04:29 +0000

@Grizz:
“We need to start drafting and signing a few true PGs or this team is never going to develop properly”
True PGs are the most rare position in the NBA. There are maybe only two or three guys who are point guards in the traditional sense. The Pistons simply need a playmaker who commands the attention of the defense on every possession. It really doesn’t matter what position that person plays, although having a playmaking PG would certainly be nice.