Comments on: Greg ‘Curly Fries’ Monroe records triple-double against DeMarcus Cousins, but Pistons lose again

By: Desolation Row

Desolation Row — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:41:32 +0000

Going against the Kings undoubtedly inflated the player and coach grades here…

By: Quin

Quin — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:35:25 +0000

Also, I bet you can name at least four current Knicks who at some point in his career was considered “team cancer.” But when they look at that Moustache, they fall right in line!

By: Quin

Quin — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:30:48 +0000

I’ve seen Tyson Chandler used well, and used poorly. Regardless, I agree with your statement about him. However, Woodson had Atlanta leading the east late in the season with no significant veterans, and a small group of good young players and draft picks. That sounds like what we want the Pistons to be.

Now that I think about it, there seem to be some similarities between Woodson’s career and Carlisle’s. Both were fired after several consecutive seasons of improving a team’s win/loss record, and leading that team deeper into the playoffs. I would rather pick up a coach who was fired on a high note.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:49:22 +0000

@Mel and Quin:

Woodson also has Tyson Chandler anchoring that No. 1 defense. If you think Woodson was winning here, you’re crazy. The fact is, there are very few good coaches in the NBA. Mediocre ones — and Frank and Woodson both fall into that category — win when they have talent and lose when they don’t. It’s that simple.

By: Quin

Quin — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:38:56 +0000

I’m gonna cry. I wish we never knew the Pistons interviewed both coaches. I really need to do some soul-searching. The Pistons organization’s poor coaching decisions (including firing Carlisle) far outweigh any bad draft choices. Woodson’s gonna contend for coach of the year again.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:15:54 +0000

I’m not sure if I’m in the minority, but I actually enjoyed watching the Pistons last night. Sure, it was frustrating to see them give up so many offensive boards, but there was a lot of activity and the offense looked a lot more fluid. I’m not sure how many great passes Monroe made from the high post, but there were a lot of them. If everyone can get used to cutting/setting down screens I don’t see any reason why Monroe can’t average around 4 apg.

Defensively, they’re still a work in progress, but they were looking to run off of defensive rebounds, and it set up a lot of easy baskets in transition. I’m sure that not every team will be as lousy as the Kings are at transition D, but I liked the aggressiveness.

Even though they lost, it was still a fun game to watch. They were competitive and genuinely seemed to care and put forth a lot of effort. I’m not sure if Monroe was just a little jacked up because he was going against Cousins, but the rest of the team seemed to follow his lead.

As a general rule, I’d like to see more Drummond, but if the Pistons play that kind of basketball the rest of the season, and the young players improve, I’d consider the season a success, regardless of the W/L record at the end.

By: I HATE YOU FRANK

I HATE YOU FRANK — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:10:26 +0000

Just make Dee Brown the head coach

By: vic

vic — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:47:37 +0000

I totally agree on how they are trying to ruin Drummond.

His personality is kind of like Tebow or Lebron, the type that is successful when given confidence and freedom, not the short leash/short bus, Jordan/Kobe “beat you into greatness” treatment. They did that to him at Uconn and that’s part of why he underperformed and fell to 9.

In the preseason, they treated him well (because it was preseason), and he stepped up and performed. Now they are starting to shut him down and they are going to get what they are expecting if they don’t stop.

By: vic

vic — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:41:31 +0000

yeah you have to watch the game to see that even if Drummond makes mistakes on defense and “looks lost”
he’s actually still more effective, evidenced by plus/minus numbers, and what actually goes on on the court when he’s on it.

Plus, look who are neck & neck, leading the pistons in WP48. Same two that should be starting:
Singler and Drummond

http://www.thenbageek.com/teams/det?direction=desc&sort=points_over_par_48

Looks like the numbers and the eyeball test have converged into complete agreement.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:19:36 +0000

at this point, monroe is the team’s best facilitator and, imho, the team’s offense looks much better, smoother when he has the ball in his hands and is making plays. the team is looking to run its offense through monroe often, but i think it needs to be done full-time.
they obviously don’t have a real point guard, a guard with real vision, so why not use the best option available?
(imho, while i have the same concerns about knight’s development as a PG, i think he needs to experience success first, and then start to refine his game. if he can become a good, solid nba player playing his hybrid PG role, and then start to add to his game – so that he becomes more of a true PG – i think that is much easier, than trying to rebuild him on the fly. coming into the league is tough for any rookie. coming in while trying to remake the way you play, before you establish your own place on a team, in the league, is even tougher.)
let monroe sit at the free throw line and toss passes to cutters. let stuckey and knight handle the ball, give it to monroe and then cut and spot up, while occasionally setting up the offense. play drummond with monroe so they can run high/low offense, featuring deadly alley-oops.
it’s not rocket science. that kind of offense cures lots of detroit’s offensive problems, it uses monroe’s talents to their fullest, it gets drummond into the game and makes him a productive part of the offense, it puts enormous pressure on the defense as they have to extend out past the paint to guard monroe.
they should have been working on this stuff last year. and this summer. and this preseason. the fact that they are still stumbling around, trying to figure out what to do with their best players, that is the biggest indictment of frank, in my view.
just another example of frank being stubborn and not being flexible enough to use the talent that he has. he is still trying to shoe-horn his players into roles they don’t necessarily fit.