Comments on: Playing with Andre Drummond helps even those who looked beyond help

By: 3sob.com | Eastern Connections

3sob.com | Eastern Connections — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:00:58 +0000

[...] Piston Powered looks at the Andre Drummond effect on some other role players in [...]

By: Crispus

Crispus — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:32:31 +0000

Maybe you’re right. I like to think Frank prioritizes locker room harmony over on the court performance sometimes. That might be sacrilege to some but losing the team could be worse.

By: sebastian

sebastian — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:06:13 +0000

Dre Drummond’s grasp of the ball from via the pass or off the glass/rim is tremendous.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:26:28 +0000

all of the decisions are frank’s and he deserves credit or blame for them.
i discussed the manner in which he came to his decisions and i think it is fair to argue my point: that the decisions noted, which have worked, have been imposed by external forces, not by frank sitting down and deciding what he thought was best for his roster.
(the last good major choice frank has made in that fashion was inserting maxiell into the starting lineup last year. maybe there has been another – can you think of one? – but i cannot recall one where frank has sat down and changed his lineup or rotation without an injury or something else moving him in that direction. even JJ’s benching – which brought CV into the rotation – was caused, imho, because of the impact of JJ getting whacked upside the head in sacramento and becoming ineffective, as a result.)
the other decisions, as i’ve noted, have either taken too long or have admittedly been imposed on him in some fashion. or he’s taken way too long to make what should have been a very quick, easy decision.
for instance, how could anyone keep sending maggette out to get abused game after game, when it was clear from the beginning that he was a shell of his former self.
maggette should have been an emergency warm body and a contractual asset for joe d to tinker with.
sending him out every game as a regular rotation player was just mindbogglingly dumb.
he did the same thing with damien wilkins last year. so this is clearly a pattern and not just a one-off type of move that can be excused.
maybe you can bring up specific decisions that do not fit that pattern. i just don’t know of any others.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:41:43 +0000

i also loved ben. loved his game.
but i think that he would have been an even better player, especially on the offensive end, if he’d been blessed with bigger hands.
imho, one of the dirty little secrets during his career was that he had such mediocre hands.
to his credit, he did what he had to do to make up for that physical limitation, and, imho, did a darn good job of compensating.
good hands is often the most overlooked asset or failing for big guys and it is something that even supposedly smart BB people overlook.
for instance, how could any smart BB guy, like michael jordan, have ever been able to overlook the fact that kwame brown had such bad hands, and draft him number one?
an amazing oversight.

By: Crispus

Crispus — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:11:34 +0000

I think Frank deserves more credit for refurbishing Charlie V and Daye. Charlie V was unavailable last year with a bad ankle and a bad attitude. Fans hated his guts, the front office hated his contract and he probably hated himself a little bit. CV came back with a better attitude and work ethic and Frank gave rewarded him with playing time despite the loud groans of the greater Detroit area.

Daye was awful last year and everyone was writing him off as a summer league superstar. Who gave him playing time of over beloved hustle exemplar Jonas Jerebko? Coach Frank. Give the man some props for the good things he has done. Yes we can agree we want more Drummond. Yes Maxiell and Prince are not the future. Still, the bench is playing great and building the spirit of the whole team with wins. It’s not fair to say the bad decisions are Frank’s and the good decisions belong to the universe.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:01:56 +0000

they are all about drummond now, but they were singing the blues when he was drafted.

By: James

James — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:58:16 +0000

If you go to NBA.com’s +/- section for the Pistons and sort by their best line-ups Drummond is on 10 of the first 11. It’s no shocker to everyone here but the team plays their best ball when he’s in the line-up.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:41:20 +0000

I think you underestimate Ben’s hands. But maybe I’m biased because Big Ben is one of my top five favorite players ever. Either way, the facts you mention mean Drummond has more offensive upside. But he doesn’t yet have the skill, experience, and know-how to put him at a higher level than Wallace.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:35:52 +0000

I’m not saying that he can get over his issues by merely manning up. I mean that, if he can’t, he should find a way to reorient his life and do things so those issues don’t hold him back so much. Those are productive solutions, as opposed to complaining. This really isn’t all that different from Daye playing poorly because of his mom’s illness. It’s understandable, but if he wants the privilege of playing in the NBA, he can’t just complain about it; he has to find a way to overcome it.

If he doesn’t, I won’t really hold it against him. He is too young to expect a whole lot out of. He would be a typical immature young man. But to receive respect (which typical immature young men do not usually get), he does need to man up in the manner described.