Comments on: All-Star Weekend Futures Game a ‘carrot’ for Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight

By: Max

Max — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:57:08 +0000

I only read the article so forgive me if I repeat someone’s point, but Dumars said they will have to work hard if they want to continue to be invited to the weekend.
In Monroe’s case, that mean’s making the all star game.
Knight however, has to work hard to be invited to the rookie sophomore game again to continue attending the event so Dumars wasn’t necessarily grouping Monroe and Knight in terms of all star potential.

By: Scout

Scout — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:59:21 +0000

Because being a leader requires taking charge and communicating with others? How is shy and quiet not the anti-thesis to that?
Also, do you really not see the value of quality leadership on a basketball team? You ever watched the Wizards? And it’s important for a PG to have these traits, because they run the offense. It’s also why having a bigman with leadership is important as well, as they are usually the leader of the defense.

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:06:13 +0000

I would take a different line of reasoning as to why the organization didn’t unveil a media driven Greg Monroe hype machine. Rather than the organization being unaware of his statistical parallels with the league’s other top centers, I believe it more likely that the organization cares little to see its players involved in All-Star Weekend at all. I did a modicum of research to find that in 2004 and 2005 (the Piston’s best years under Dumars) the Pistons had one All-Star, Ben Wallace. In 2006 the Pistons sent four to the All-Star game, and would never duplicate their previous success. What I’m trying to get at with this is, but for a few exceptions, the more a player feels he has achieved in his career the more his hunger for greatness fades. My guess is that its not so much that the organization is unaware of Monroe’s value, but that they want to keep their second year center as hungry for success as possible.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:49:46 +0000

A) How are the attributes shy and quiet the antithesis to leadership?

B) Can someone please explain to me what this mysterious quality people refer to as leadership is? I know what leadership normally looks like, but on a basketball court? Coaches and officials have leadership. And a player can, but what does that do for a team? The team needs a bunch of guys who work hard and play together. Why does it matter if one of them is the leader? And why should a leader be a PG?

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:45:58 +0000

How are PG and C the most important? The two players who have done the most to raise their teams to contender status over the past decade are Kobe and Lebron. Teams need good players. Most championship teams have good PGs and Cs, but they have good players at most every position.

And to further argue against your rationale, more commenters than not seem to think that Monroe is a “natural PF.” Either you concede that C and PF are pretty much the same so C can’t be particularly more important or you claim that Monroe is not suited to playing the 4. And while Knight is pegged as a PG, right now there are so many good young PGs, it would not seem very difficult for the Pistons to replace him with a better one in the next couple years.

By: gerdz

gerdz — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:50:23 +0000

@ steve agreed 100%

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:06:56 +0000

"where have they slighted monroe at the least?"

They've sent out about a million press releases about Vanilla Ice performing at halftime of games. Why can't they put together one "get Moose to the AS game" promotion? I mean, when your product is a basketball team, when you have a basketball team that isn't drawing well, I would think a cool marketing strategy would be to try and get fans interested and engaged in things like a Greg Monroe all-star campaign rather than hyped about a Morris Day and the Time concert.

By: steve battle creek, mi

steve battle creek, mi — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:03:35 +0000

and funny how you completly skipped over david thorpes chat comment….

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:02:47 +0000

Comparing their situations is different than saying, in steve from battle creek language, "dErp SMH lol greg mONroe is better than kevin love rofl"

Love went from a guy who was getting benched by his coaching staff, to a guy who surprisingly made the AS team despite the disadvantage of playing on a horrible team in a small market to a guy who has improved again this season and earned a max extension.

Is Monroe the same type of player Love is? No. But could Monroe have gone from rookie whose incompetent coach didn't play enough early on to second year all-star to franchise cornerstone big man? Yeah, he could very well be on a similar path, even if he doesn't put up numbers as good as Loves.

By: steve battle creek, mi

steve battle creek, mi — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:59:42 +0000

point guard and center are the two most important postions in the league. so to say they are the two most important is very accurate