Comments on: Tayshaun Prince at No. 105, Rodney Stuckey listed at No. 108, Ben Gordon at 111 in ESPN #NBARank

By: 2Tough

2Tough — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:38:43 +0000

Ben Gordon and Richard Hamilton ranked ahead of Monroe is laughable. Last season, Monroe and Stuckey were the best Piston players, whether these rankings reflect that or not.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:28:21 +0000

That one is possible. I have my doubts because he performed well when Rose was something I wouldn’t exactly call a true point guard and when Hinrich was running the show. I would be more likely to believe he plays best when he is the goto guy. Regardless, his drop off in production has been very hard to explain. The problem is that at this point, a return to his old production would be similarly hard to explain. But we can hope for the best right?

By: Jodi Jezz

Jodi Jezz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:36:26 +0000

Good points…It also might be a matter of Detroit not having a true point guard…

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:08:40 +0000

Come on, Gordon’s minutes have been reduced since going to Detroit. But a good player ought to be able to perform in 25-30 mpg. Those are solid minutes even if they are less than the 30-40 he got in Chicago. Furthermore, look at the game logs from last year. Gordon got minutes as consistent as anyone who doesn’t average 35 mpg. Nobody plays every game within a 5 minute range. But for the majority of the season (namely, through the beginning of March), Gordon averaged 30 mpg with a fair bit of consistency. There were only 4 games out of those first 63-65 in which he recorded fewer than 20 minutes. And those were still all in the high teens. I can’t see the game logs from when he was in Chicago as comparison, but I doubt they were radically different except for being a few minutes higher across the board. As a point of reference, his minutes played standard deviation in the 80% of the season I am referencing was comparable to that of a player like Kevin Martin. Just normal fluctuations.

I’m not saying Gordon can’t be used better. But it’s not a matter of consistent minutes.

By: Jodi Jezz

Jodi Jezz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:51:39 +0000

I’m going with the fact that Gordon has never been played correctly since being in Detroit…One game he plays 13 mins, next game he plays 18 mins, the game after the next one he starts and plays 31 mins, then another game he plays 20 mins…Nothing about Kuester’s player rotations were ever consistent, absolutely nothing…Now if Kuester had played Gordon correctly for 2 season with a consistent 30mins every game and Gordon still had a rough time scoring, I would agree with trading him or I’ll agree with his “ESPN ranking”. But come on, in Chicago Gordon was played correctly and look at the results, I’m hoping Frank learns from Kuester’s mistakes and plays Gordon correctly to get better results…If Frank plays him right I think we’ll see that high scoring 6th man that we’ve been waiting for…

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:40:14 +0000

You’re right. My bad. you shouldn’t get rankings based on potential. But you will note that I am in full agreement that BG is ranked way too high. Although he has been more efficient than Daye from everywhere on the floor.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:19:38 +0000

Also, in an argument between Jodi Jezz and detroitpcb on the relative merits of Gordon vs Daye, I’m curious how much evidence would ever be brought to the table. I suppose I could join in as I am probably similarly irrational when it comes to Oden ( the FA I really hope the Pistons land), but since he doesn’t play for Detroit, absurd “he’s better than everyone even though he’s done nothing to show that he is” arguments don’t come out too often from me.

I mean, seriously, what are you two going on? Jodi, do you have anything other than his time in Chicago to work with? Detroitpcb, do you have anything besides a really pretty jumper and a few meaningless games he played very well in this summer to work with?

By: neutes

neutes — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:16:14 +0000

Daye has been better than Gordon as a Piston, although he doesn’t have the sample set for me to make all that great of a case. And funny you say that you don’t get high rankings based on potential – isn’t that exactly what Gordon is ranked on? The potential to be what he once was?

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:41:51 +0000

Ummm, Ben Gordon is ranked too high. And shouldn’t be ahead of Monroe. But cool it with the Daye nonsense. You might be right that he will have a breakout season. There’s even an uotside chance that he becomes an all-star caliber player. But you don’t get high rankings as an NBA player based on potential. You get it based on production. And are you honestly arguing that Daye has been more productive thus far than Gordon? That would be like saying that DeMarcus Cousins belongs higher than Al Jefferson.

By: neutes

neutes — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:09:12 +0000

duh