Comments on: Going 5-on-5 with Detroit Pistons questions

By: Jakob Eich

Jakob Eich — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:52:56 +0000

@ Patrick: Oh, yeah, I think he’s given up on Stuckey being the PG, not on the overall skill set he has! I believe Knight will be a better PG than Stuckey ever was, maybe not in PPG or even APG but in running the offense!

By: Murph

Murph — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:47:23 +0000

I’m not sure what Monroe’s upside is. He very well could develop into an 18/10 guy and become an All-Star.

But IMO, what will really make Monroe stand out is if some coach figures out a way to use the excellent passing and playmaking skills that Monroe displayed in college on the NBA level. Monroe averaged almost 4 apg as a sophomore and almost 3 apg as a freshman, as Georgetown’s center.

To put that in perspective, Brandon Knight averaged 4.2 apg last year as a freshman PG at KY.

I’d like to see Lawrence Frank figure out a way to incorporate Monroe’s impressive passing skills into the Pistons offense. IMO, Frank should even try to run the Pistons offense through Monroe in the high post, on occasion, the way Chris Webber was ocassionally used.

By: Murph

Murph — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:01:52 +0000

a. Stuckey and Rip
b. I’d like to see Jerebko, Daye and Singler all get some minutes at SF. The one who plays best should continue to start.
c. Personally, I’d like to see the Pistons acquire a starting, big, defensive minded center through free agency, such as Jordan or Dalembert, and then have Monroe start at PF. If that’s not possible, then Monroe should start at C, with Jerebko starting at PF. However, that leaves the front line thin and under-sized.

d. Prince is gone. He would be crazy to re-sign with the Pistons. The best the Pistons can hope for is that Tay agrees to a sign and trade. Rip will be difficult to trade with his contract. Gordon might be easier to trade because of his age. Regardless, the Pistons urgently need to trade one or the other. I would prefer they keep Rip and trade Gordon.

e. Hopefully, the Pistons will make the playoffs in 2013 or 14.

By: Marvin Jones

Marvin Jones — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:01:34 +0000

I don’t think Dumars’s drafting of Knight says anything about Stuckey, it just so happened that with all the bigs that he liked being gone, Knight was the “best player available” and most GMs will draft that player regardless of position. Now he has to figure out what to do with him.

By: neutes

neutes — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:47:57 +0000

a. Stuckey and Rip should and probably will start if they are both on the team. I’m not at all convinced Stuckey is a better SG than PG, in fact, I’m almost sure he’s not. Knight has to earn his playing time. I’m not handing over the reigns to a rookie PG that had a poor shooting percentage, high turnover rate, and low assist numbers in college. The growing pains would be pretty painful.

b. No. I think it’s more likely the future SF is on the roster than the future PF. The future PF is assuredly not on the roster.

c. I have no idea what Monroe’s ceiling is. I would say 16/10 to be conservative. He has the tools to be very good and he showed flashes of a solid post game last season. He also flashed his jumper here and there but he doesn’t exactly have a quick release on that.

d. Tay should definitely leave, both for his sake and the majority of Pistons fans. I don’t want anything in return for him. I’m actually hoping against a sign and trade because I think whatever we take back won’t be all that good, so what’s the point? Rip can stay if Gordon can be traded. Rip can go if he’s moved easily. I don’t wanna take back junk. I’d rather keep Rip and his soon to be favorable contract.

e. It’s conceivable the Pistons could make the playoffs next season, or whenever that season exists. It all depends though. If Stuckey and Rip start and play well, if Daye, Jerebko, and Monroe improve, if Knight plays sparingly, Gordon shoots and scores off the bench, and Wallace can stay healthy and manage 20 min per game I could see the Pistons with a .500ish record. I don’t think anything I said if about is really all that outside the realm of possibility at all. If Knight plays a lot and we suffer through his growing pains we’re going to be a bad team, which is also fine, as long as he improves over the course of the season. The problem is our peak is about .500. I’m not sure where to go after that. If making the playoffs is really the goal I suppose this team isn’t that far away, but it’s pretty far away from contending, infinitely far away.

By: khandor

khandor — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:44:21 +0000

Dumars’ decision to draft Brandon Knight with the No. 8 Selection in this year’s NBA Draft means only that he believes Mr. Knight was the best available player. Period. How Misters Stuckey and Knight develop, however, will be determined by [#1] their own level of hard work, and [#2] the specific way they are eventually used by their head coach[es].
Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with either of the following rotations:
1st Unit: Stuckey + Gordon + Prince + Monroe + Wilcox 2nd Unit: Knight + Hamilton + Daye + Jerebko [or Maxiell or Villanueva] + FA [or Wallace]
1st Unit: Knight + Hamilton + Prince + Monroe + Wilcox 2nd Unit: Stuckey + Gordon + Daye + Jerebko [or Maxiell or Villanueva] + FA [or Wallace]
As long as Coach Frank avoids using:
i. Bynum ii. Hamilton, at SF iii. Knight/PG + Gordon/OG iv. Gordon/OG + Hamilton/SF
the Pistons should be able to compete for the final 2 playoff spots in the EC next season.

By: Gregoire

Gregoire — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:42:08 +0000

It all has been said already!!!
Move Tay and Rip away for some Pics, start Stuckey and Gordon until Knight earns the Job. Then Start Knight and Gordon and move Stuckey to the Bench. Try to get an athletic Center to be able to move Monroe to the Four. Let Daye proove himself as Small Forward, if that fails then get one via Free Agency, Draft or Trade. Go with Jerebko from the Bench. Only question that remains is what to do with Villanueva and Maxiell? Both are Crap and have Zero Value neither to the Team nor as Trade-asset.

By: Murph

Murph — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:40:26 +0000

“I think the underlying thing that has to be considered is whether Hamilton wants to stay. If he truly wants to stay and is cool with winning the SG spot back by out-playing everyone in camp/preseason, then great.”

I don’t see any indication that Hamilton wants to leave, now that Kuester is gone.

Also, in all analysis of Hamilton and his “bad attitude”, I don’t think enough emphasis is put on Kuester and his role in the whole debacle.

Admittedly, when Hamitlon was benched, he wasn’t playing all that well, but he wasn’t benched because of an attitude problem or because of his poor level of play. Initially, Rip was benched because he was involved in a proposed trade. His agent (Leon Rose) worked out a potential trade (with no help from Joe) that would have benifited the Pistons. The proposed 3-way trade would have sent Rip to NJ for Troy Murphy’s expiring contract, Johan Petro, and a 1st or 2nd round pick, which was about as well as the Pistons would have hoped for at that point in the season.

Unfortunately, the deal fell though when Carmelo Anthony vetoed the trade. However, even after the deal fell through, Kuester refused to play Rip for the next 23 out of 24 games, even though Rip was perfectly healthy, and no long involved in any realistic trade proposals.

To make matters worse, the Pistons organization (probably the coaching staff) started to leak negative stories about Hamitlon to the local press, who gleefully ran the stories.

So what was Hamilton supposed to do? Sit on the bench and take it all from some incompetent coach and his dim-witted staff??? Not Hamilton. He’s too fiesty for that.

I actaully admire the way in which Hamilton handled the situation. He rallied his teammates to his cause. He got himself inserted back into the starting rotation. He improved his play by season’s end. And he eventually helped to get John Kuester fired.

Well done, Rip! I hope you stay in the D for as long as you want.

By: Marvin Jones

Marvin Jones — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:34:44 +0000

I think the last two years were more an indictment on the coach and his system than overall philosophy, lets see what Frank can do to define roles, have a consistent rotation and how all of that affects team chemistry. I think we’ll be a better team from the start just beacuse of the type of coach he is

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:35:58 +0000

You’re right. I think another reason people don’t immediately think Horford when coming up with comparisons for Monroe is the fact that his skillset was really different in college than it was in the pros. Heading into the draft, most projected Monroe as a better offensive player than a defensive player and rebounder. He wasn’t a great rebounder at Georgetown and because of his high-post passing, there were a lot of comparisons to Webber/Divac/Brad Miller good passing big men types. I liked Monroe’s game a lot in college, but I do have to admit, he was a different type of player as a rookie than I thought he would be. I had no idea he’d rebound that well that quickly in the NBA.