Comments on: When good defense goes bad: How a mostly positive defensive sequence late against Phoenix broke down

By: Jakob Eich

Jakob Eich — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:05:07 +0000

Both strategies have a lot of ifs and buts, you never know! What we do know, however, is that it could have worked if Maxey hadn’t blacked out. I think the only other viable option for Max would have been JJ, Drummond and Kravtsov are just too inexperienced. In retrospective though it seems like neither one of them could have done worse.
WHat I don’t like about fouling on the inbound is that you basically assume you get a quick two, there’s about a 60% chance you don’t. Even if we do, and we just traded baskets, we are in the exact same situation with less time.

By: MrHappyMushroom

MrHappyMushroom — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:01:00 +0000

What an excellent break down! Even I understood.

Sounds like Max was a completely bum on this play. I don’t think coaches should need to remind an eight year vet that he shouldn’t allow some guy to stand all alone under your basket.

By: ryan

ryan — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:50:09 +0000

Thanks Jakob I always enjoy seeing these plays broken down, more so when the Pistons are successful. I take this as encouraging since it was a good strategy 90% well executed. We’ll get there.

By: ray

ray — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:48:26 +0000

We took 6-7 seconds off the clock pressuring the ball to end up give up a 2 point lay-up anyway… That’s always the high risk with applying full court pressure …

If you foul on the inbound… That 19 seconds … Even if they make both … If you come back with a quick two…. Then with 14-15 seconds left you still have options…. In our case we lucked out to have a chance to send it to overtime

By: gmehl

gmehl — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:04:09 +0000

It only ever takes 1 out of the 5 guys on the court to be the weak link and it will all fall to sh!t. How does the saying go ‘it takes 5 fingers to make a fist’. We need all 5 guys on the court at once playing above there normal level of play to make some nose this year. Look back at 2001-02 piston roster and you will see that those guys played as a team on both ends of the court without stars but with a lot of heart.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:11:46 +0000

btw, when it happened, it was hard to believe. while the significance is far less, obviously, i immediately thought of chris webber and his time out. absolute brain cramp.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:10:11 +0000

yep, it is max’s mental error.
however, the coach has to make certain each player knows, understands and executes his on-court duties. if he doesn’t, it’s the coach’s responsibility, also.
and if he thinks that a particular player is not up to the task of remembering his role, he should find another player to fill that role.
i do think that max is primarily responsible, however. when you line people up for blame, he’s first in line.
the thing that makes the matter bad, imho, is that this is exactly the kind of mental mistake that gets rookies benched for long periods, in lawrence frank’s world. if a rookie young player makes that kind of mistake, it’s pointed to as an indication that he’s not ready to play.
vets like max, however, make such a fundamental error and there are no repercussions.
ball watching – without keeping an eye on his man, also – is one of the dumbest things that dumb players do. the fact that max is an 8 year vet and still makes that mistake, is…well, as i said, it is the kind of error that usually gets a rookie benched.

By: Brendon Crew

Brendon Crew — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:34:37 +0000

My question was why we passed to Knight when Singler was wide open in the corner and 2-2 that night for 3 pointers.

By: Jakob Eich

Jakob Eich — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:18:55 +0000

They would have to miss two, otherwise it still would have been a two possession game. Also, normally you can pressure and still make it a FT shooting game, you just cannot give away such an easy lay-up. If we foul with 15 seconds left we still get two shots up so I like this strategy a lot. I disagree on the coaching. It is Maxiell’s mistake to forget the man in his back, and started walking away.

By: ray

ray — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 17:37:28 +0000

Thats Coaching… also with 21 seconds…we could have turned that into a ft shooting game…. all they had to do was miss one…