Comments on: Pistons start tough stretch tonight against Philadelphia

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:59:29 +0000

any player who proves that he can shoot in the nba, qualifies as an nba-level shooter.
austin daye shot .40% on over 170 3-point shots last season.
therefore, austin daye has proven that he is an nba shooter.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:26:25 +0000

Or he knows his play is bad so he uses that as an excuse. If his play were good, odds are he’d have his coach’s confidence. And a couple good games is not enough to build said confidence in most coaches’ eyes just as a couple bad games aren’t enough to lose it.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:23:12 +0000

There is indication that he has shooting ability. There is no indication that he is a decent NBA player. Because again, even last year, when he was much better than this year, he still sucked. He just shot threes well, well enough to look like if he developed the rest of his game, he could have an NBA future. Instead, the rest of his game looks even worse and his shooting is gone. Has he had big minutes this season? No, but he has significant ones. And again, if he can’t play decent ball in 15 mpg, why would you expect him to play good ball in 25 mpg?

Finally, let me reiterate:
I am for giving him some more chances but only because the Pistons have nothing to lose. In any other situation, he would have had plenty enough chances by now.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:21:13 +0000

felton started the season offf like an all star. he played extremely well for the first ten games or so. also, felton lost all of that weight. he lost the weight, and then his game fell apart. anyway, he’s always been a porker, so the idea that his weight somehow did him in does not hold water. i’ve never liked him as a player. but he played very well right out of the box this season. so obviously the weight made very little, if any, difference.
in his mind, which is my point, he believes that the coach’s lack of confidence has been fatal.
this is what felton said:

But for the Portland Trail Blazers’ point guard Raymond Felton, he says he’s reached a point he’s never been at as a professional athlete and playing for someone who doesn’t have confidence in him, is very frustrating.
“I know I’m struggling, but it’s hard to perform the way you know how when you know they don’t have confidence in you,” Felton told CSNNW.com. “Never in my days playing basketball, have I felt like a coach wasn’t confident in my abilities. It’s hard to play knowing that.
“Coming in and out of games is throwing my rhythm off, but it’s something that I’ll get through.”

http://www.csnnw.com/pages/landingblazers?Felton-frustrated-with-lack-of-confidenc=1&blockID=652842&feedID=5212

what matters is not what is objectively true – whether you could ever discern that – but what the player believes. and felton obviously believes that he does not have the coach’s confidence and it is killing his play.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:08:50 +0000

that is just utter BS. sorry.
“no indication”?simply untrue, by any measure.
he had the third highest number of 3 point shots last year. while playing significantly fewer minutes than the players who had the first or second most 3 point shots.
he was in the top 30 in the entire league for 3 point shooting. and the only 6’11 or taller player in that category.
he essentially tied – .401 vs .402 for the best 3 point shooter honors on the pistons.
facts. i know those things can be tough to deal with sometimes, but you cannot simply ignore them.
to say that there is “no indication” that he has an nba talent is simply false.
he has shown, over the course of a season that he has nba level 3 point shooting talent. a talent which had been manifest going back to high school.
imho, it is certainly legitimate to question whether he has the emotional or mental make up to be a quality nba player. but the idea that he doesn’t possess at least one nba skill is simply BS that is made false by cold hard stats.
there are plenty of nba players who have done nothing but stand in a corner and shoot jumpers. guys have gotten paid lots of money to do that one thing, as it is a coveted nba skill. especially in an almost seven foot body.
get real….

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:11:17 +0000

He’s obviously talented relative to the competition at a high school level. And decently,but not overwhelmingly, so on the college level s well. On the NBA level, there has been no indication that he is. I am for giving him some more chances but only because the Pistons have nothing to lose. In any other situation, he would have had plenty enough chances by now.

He has played 166 games with an average of 16.6 minutes per game. That’s not a ton of minutes but it’s not 12th man minutes either (<10 mpg). And if he can’t even be halfway to mediocre in 17 mpg, he may be better but odds are he won’t be any great shakes if you give him 30 mpg.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:04:52 +0000

C Mo? I don’t know who that is and my only guess is Cuttino Mobley. Is he even still playing? I know he’s not on the Pistons.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:24:07 +0000

Let’s be real: Felton’s game is also being destroyed because he’s fat as hell. He’s a good candidate for the Shawn Kemp Award of this year’s lockout.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:03:41 +0000

no question daye could be one of those guys. it happens all of the time. in fact, that was one of the issues that was presented when he was drafted…whether he had the maturity and mental capability to play to his talent. which, imho, is all the more reason to have tread a bit more delicately with him. if you know beforehand that it is an issue, why would you behave as though it was not an issue at all? if the team didn’t want to deal with that aspect of austin daye, they should not have drafted him. what i’ve argued is that he has not been given the opportunity to truly show whether he has it or doesn’t have it. the insensitive way frank dealt with his early slump, imho, only made matters worse. giving someone a couple of games and then benching them is not the way to do it. and what was remarkable was that daye actually had what could have been a breakout game, and within 5 games, frank was back to yo-yoing his minutes. i look at how he has dealt with daye and the utter lack of confidence he has shown to macklin and don’t have a high regard for his ability to deal with those tough cases. i could easily destroy the confidence of the best student in half a semester, if i ever wanted to do so. nba coaches can do that in even less time. slumps happen. here in portland, raymond felton is going through a horrible slump. fans want to ride him out of town on a rail. he’s actually talking publicly about the impact of the coach NOT having confidence in him and how that is affecting his play. and felton has been in the league for a long time. thios iif a vet like felton is having his game destroyed by perceiving that his coach doesn’t have confidence in him, what does that same dynamic do to a young player who has not established himself.

By: swish22

swish22 — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:59:36 +0000

It’s not like he was playing any substantial minutes overseas during the lockout!! This should have been a warning for the Daye fans if he couldn’t get minutes inn Europe! His game has regressed and even when he did shoot the ball well last year he made a lot of bonehead mistakes on the floor. I’m sure he’ll get another shot and hopefully he’s working hard and it’ll payoff! but…
the game is so physical these days he has a rough time if the matchup isn’t just right contributing in other ways no?? As bad as the effort was tonight he should get a shot soon enough!