Comments on: Tayshaun Prince losing patience as NBA gets younger

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:41:11 +0000

“Every single coach will tell you they need leadership on EVERY team in EVERY sport.”

When everyone is always saying it, it is probably not underrated. This would be like me saying “LeBron is so underrated, every expert says he is the best player in the game today.” I’m contradicting myself with such a statement.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 01:41:52 +0000

If I recall correctly, the Clippers agreed to a contract with Butler before the Pistons with Prince.

By: Chris N

Chris N — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:13:55 +0000

“…this is an indictment of Dumars, who gave us a bogus reason for a signing that most fans didn’t agree with right away. It just sadly proves another one of Joe’s sound bytes was nothing but a face-saving lie.”

Those are really harsh words Keith. Where’s the supporting evidence? You insinuate that Prince doesn’t want to occupy a position of leadership on the Pistons, and yet I’ve never read a report or a quote supporting that. I’ve read articles stating that he’s been dissatisfied with the approach some of his coaches have taken and the lack of urgency he feels the team has played with at times, but I don’t see how that equates to his unwillingness to be a leader. Whether or not he’s been effective in the role is a separate argument.

As for the motivation behind Joe Dumars re-signing Prince, I haven’t read any articles, reports, interviews or otherwise that suggest that Dumars re-signed Prince for reasons other than the ones he stated. But maybe I’m missing something. Can you point me towards the information that led you to make your conclusions?

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:50:21 +0000

The problem is quantifying leadership in any capacity. Billups was a good leader. You can tell good leaders. The problem is that leadership and experience are often equated when they are not at all the same thing. Teams sign experienced vets every year with hope of teaching the young’ns or adding more leadership in the locker-room. This almost always fails. The vet just ends up being the same player he was on a different team. The team doesn’t grow any more with the vet, they either find their own leadership or stay the same. Leadership is highly overrated when it comes to veterans, as most veterans are just old, not leaders.

And I agree, Prince shouldn’t have re-signed with us if he didn’t want to go through a rebuild. Of course, we don’t really know if other teams offered him more (my guess: no), or what Dumars was selling him on. But at the same time, it’s just compounding the errors Dumars has made. He thought Rip and Tay could be leaders, even though there was no indication to believe so. He thought we would be fine without Ben, he was wrong. He thought we would be fine without Chauncey, he was wrong. Now we’re 3 years into losing and rebuilding, but where is the leadership and direction? Dumars seems fine to let the team go wherever it wants, and hasn’t said anything about actually playing rookies or having any sort of long term direction. Frank as his coach has been resistant to change and has flat out lied about starting spots being an open competition. The most leadership I’ve seen out of our current players was English saying he’d take care of Drummond. After that, what do you have? Stuckey and Prince were part of a walkout, and neither are great players that can simply lead by example. Moose is our best player, but not an exuberant personality.

By: Dan Feldman

Dan Feldman — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:46:39 +0000

"But the reports were that clippers offered more money." Show me one report that says this.

By: danny

danny — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:40:06 +0000

yes someone that knows what they are talking about.

By: bugsygod

bugsygod — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:32:01 +0000

But he agreed to resign! He knew we were going for full youth movement, it would be his fault if he is not happy with the team.
*
and LEADERSHIP is not overrated, it is very UNDERRATED. Look at the nba.com surveys, they ask who is best leader in the league. Every single coach will tell you they need leadership on EVERY team in EVERY sport. I have heard sooo many coaches, state they cannot lead the team, leadership has to come from the players. coach hoke at michigan was just talking about this before season started, he needs leaders to step up. I think you are very wrong about the importance of leadership. Billups was a great leader for the team, i think that is what was missed most when he was traded, not his on court, but his off court. Now is Prince a leader?? that is a different story…

By: bugsygod

bugsygod — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:20:40 +0000

But the reports were that clippers offered more money and made a strong push for him, but he chose less to stay with pistons. This was reported right after he signed. Now of course none of that is fact, but if he just signed back with us for the money, then that is a LARGER issue. Did Joe know he was just signing for money? What was conversation when he signed, did Joe not tell him we were going with youth and he still signed? But like i said i believe that vet experience is what joe was looking at, which i have no problem with. I think prince will come in handy this year if we are contending for playoffs where he can help in late game situations, BUT if just also ran team, GET HM OUT OF HERE!

By: labatts

labatts — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:06:38 +0000

The league is getting younger relative to me, too.

By: Dan Feldman

Dan Feldman — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:54:26 +0000

"if he resigned knowing that Pistons were going younger why would he have resigned with the team?" No other team offered more money.