In close games small mistakes can have big consequences. Detroit was in one such close game on Friday against the Phoenix Suns. After trailing throughout the entire second half ,the team managed to mount a comeback and reached striking distance with less than a minute to go. After a great play that saw two of the probable future franchise leaders of this team, Brandon Knight and Greg Monroe, run a pick-and-roll, the team was only down three points with :21 seconds left. Most coaches would foul in this situation, but Lawrence Frank chose a different path and tried a full-court zone pressure defense. It almost worked as the Suns barely escaped an 8-second violation. Unfortunately, the Suns’ P. J. Tucker got an easy lay-up and Phoenix the win. Here’s a look:

Marcin Gortat was the inbounder on this play, when Detroit set the zone pressure up quickly. It is great to see that this young team is capable of using this weapon now because of their speed and athleticism. To me it is great coaching by Frank, because this was a decision made on the fly depending on whether the team scored or not. The ability to tell his team to use this strategy is a clear sign of progress when it comes to basketball IQ. Anyway, Knight is playing deny on Goran Dragic, Monroe is lurking at the free throw line, and Kyle Singler is covering Shannon Brown. At this point, Phoenix’ only ball-handling option is Dragic, because Luis Scola and Gortat cannot be trusted bringing the ball up the court under pressure. The Suns’ coaching staff was surprised by Detroit’s strategy. They clearly wanted to have the best free throw shooters on the court in an attempt of anticipating the Pistons’ plan of fouling after a score.

So Dragic is able to catch the ball and commences his dribble. He is in a one on one situation with Knight, a better athlete. What you want to do in this situation is to turn the ball-handler. This means you stay in front of him, so he has to switch directions in order to not go out-of bounds. Dragic does not use Scola’s screen, because he is afraid of a trap by Singler.

A faster point guard than Dragic (e. g.  Bledsoe, Westbrook) would run right past Knight, but Dragic couldn’t get by. This enables Knight to make him turn a second time. Now Dragic is under time pressure, he has only covered half the way, and has five seconds left to make a decision.

Dragic spins and gets a hard double-team by Knight and Singler which causes him to pick up his dribble. This is usually a death sentence for a point guard. Normally the Suns would have to use a timeout or lose the ball. Phoenix had two timeouts left and could easily have called one to avoid a turnover. Nevertheless, Dragic still could have thrown the ball away if he had not found a way out. Detroit has all players covered, Gortat is too close to Dragic, Tayshaun Prince covers Brown (the only other competent ball-handler) plus Prince is close enough to bother the slow Scola. But if you have noticed, there are only four Phoenix players in the picture, the fifth, P. J. Tucker, is all the way at Detroit’s baseline. Detroit’s fifth player, Jason Maxiell, should be at Detroit’s free throw line to make this a very risky pass. Instead he makes a common mistake. He is watching the situation closely (this is not a mistake) and subconsciously moves 10 feet toward the action. Players tend to do that, Maxiell is a veteran though and I would expect him to stick to his assignment.

This gives Goran Dragic the best option available. He throws a very long pass down the court. Maxiell realizes his mistake immediately and dashes to the baseline. As you can see, when Tucker catches the ball, Maxiell is still only at the free throw line and has no chance of recovering. Tucker makes the easy layup, Phoenix goes up 91-86 and Detroit eventually loses the game.

So what positive is there to take from the play then? Well, for starters, Knight has great feet, long arms, and he is obviously learning how to make more of an impact defensively. The team defense, with the exception of Maxiell, was outstanding in this instance. It is unfortunate they were unable to create another opportunity to tie the game. The team is getting closer and closer, better and better, and much more fun to watch.

After struggling mightily the first two seasons after Billups’ departure, Stuckey has shown real improvement. Dan asked me to write about on why Stuckey was so much better last season than during the prior seasons. So, I dug deep down into the data (using MySynergySports, Basketball-Reference.com, and 82games), and I could not find strong evidence that Stuckey improved greatly last year.

What leaps Stuckey did make mostly came at the offensive side of the floor, where more than perform his tasks better, Stuckey attempted tasks that yield more points.

Inside shooting

Stuckey possesses a nice, bulky build for his height, so although his jumper was shaky, people expected him to get to the bucket frequently early in his career. One of the biggest problems fans have had with Stuckey was that he was miserable at making baskets from close range. His effective field goal percentage (eFG%) on shots taken from the inside was very low. During the 09-10 season Stuckey’s eFG% inside was only 48.5%. Moreover, to get a feeling for this figure, I chose Tyreke Evans who has often been compared to Stuckey due to their similar frame and game (big bulky frame, below-average shooter). Evans had an eFG% from the inside of 62.8%, so a whopping 14.3% better than Stuckey’s. Mind you, Evans did not have a strong season and was often criticized for not taking his game to the next level. So how have Stuckey’s numbers improved? Let’s look at the first graph:

As you can see, the blue bar represents the 2009-2010 season, orange 2010-2011, and yellow finally 2011-2012. This will stay this way throughout the post.

On the left side the eFG% of inside shots is illustrated. Stuckey’s production in this regard has risen considerably. According to 82games.com, in 09-10 he only converted the aforementioned 48.5% of his shots, while during the next season he got the mark up to 56%. Last year it dropped back 52%, but one could argue that this was caused by the coaching change and the shorter training camp.

What creates some optimism in my opinion are the bars on the right. While in 09-10 his inside shots were only assisted in 31% of the cases, this number has risen to 39% (10-11), and 38% (11-12). This is an indicator for improved team play and ball movement. Stuckey created most of his offense in 09-10 out of isolations plays, which usually end up in tough jumper or contested drives. With the improved passing and catching the ball on the move, his efficiency has gone up. If a player recognizes the situation quickly enough he can get easy buckets en masse. Kevin Durant is an absolute master at catching the ball on the move and scoring it efficiently.

Stuckey’s jump shots have also been increasingly assisted. The percentage of his assisted jump shots has gone up from 34% in ’09-’10 to 40% last season.

But that change occurred between 09-10 and 10-11. What was the big difference for Stuckey in 11-12?

3-pointers and free throws

Let’s look at his shooting numbers in general. He has gotten most of his praise for improving his shooting, do the numbers back that up? Have a look at his traditional numbers.

One can see that his field goal percentage went from 40.5% to 43.9% back to 42.9%. So his percentage improved slightly, but it is still far below the average of elite guards. For example Ben Gordon, who was often criticized for his lack of productivity, shot 44.2% from the field last year. Nevertheless, Stuckey’s 3-point-field goal percentage (3P%) has increased from 22.8% (09-10) to a still-below-league-average 31.7% (Detroit shot 34.6% from range as a team) last year. So the notion that he has become a better shooter is a result of his improved 3-point-shooting, which is not to be neglected.

But most of all, the Pistons need his penetration. If he can knock down open jumper, that’s great, but Detroit needs him to get to the basket. In 09-10, 64% of all his shot attempts were jump shots. In 10-11, this number had dropped 60%, so he has made an effort of driving more. He has become more aggressive driving to the basket, and he has become more adept at drawing fouls. Although he got to the foul line just 5.2 times per 36 minutes in ’09-’10, this number has increased to 6.3 (’10-’11) and peaked at 7.0 attempts per 36 minutes last season.

Once he gets to the line, his free-throws are very solid. He is a career 83.4% free-throw shooter. His best year was ’10-’11 when he converted on 86.6% of all his free-throws.

What driving more and hitting more 3-pointers usually does for you is it improves your true-shooting percentage (TS%) and your eFG%. Let’s have a look:

The graph shows that his TS% has improved from 47.9% to 54.4% to 55%, while his eFG% has increased from 41.3% to 45.5% to 45.6%. The TS% has become a little better, because it puts more emphasis on free throws and 3-pointers, which have made the biggest jump in Stuckey’s game. The eFG% does not take free-throws into account, but merely adjusts for the fact that a 3-pointer is worth more than 2-pointer.

All this is meant to illustrate is that Stuckey’s scoring and shooting have improved by a lot since 2010, and he has become much more valuable to the Pistons.

Stuckey does not hoist as many bad jump shots, and his shot selection has really improved over the past two seasons. His decision-making is not off-the-charts and probably never will be, but he can be a serviceable two-guard for this young Pistons team.

Stuckey’s usage rate has gone down to 23.7%, after it peaked during the 2009-10 campaign at 26.7%. So, he is more productive than three years ago while not demanding the ball as much anymore. The emergence of Greg Monroe certainly has something to do with it

Stuckey is not a remarkably better player than during the 2010-11 season. He is merely a different player with a bit better production – a good tradeoff for the budding Pistons.

After the inbound pass Prince holds the ball, guarded by the much smaller Keith Bogans, on the right wing. Greg Monroe is in the low-post. Brandon Knight and Jonas Jerebko stand at the left elbow.

Knight comes over to set a pick for Tayshaun Prince. Prince does a very poor job of using the screen, because as you can see, Knight must make a huge step to the right in order to give Prince any opportunity to get away from his defender. Luckily, the referees did not call a moving-screen violation. Unfortunately, the play wouldn’t get better, anyhow.

The Nets switch Deron Williams onto Tayshaun and Bogans stays with Knight. Williams is fast and strong enough to deny penetration by Prince. Meanwhile, Jerebko sets an off-ball screen for Walker Russell while Tayshaun drives left. I believe this was meant to be a hand-off, but Russell somehow simply runs into Jerebko.

Now, there are six players within a couple of feet of each other. Jerebko makes the correct read and fades out to the 3-point line, where he will receive the pass.

Note that the Pistons haven’t used (and will not use) their most effective scorer and one of their better screeners – Monroe – during this possession.

Jerebko has a pretty clear path toward the basket and tries to drive the ball into middle, while Prince hinders Shawne Williams to recover. Knight and Monroe (best shooter, best scorer on the court) are completely out of the picture.

Deron Williams makes another great read and quickly switches onto Jerebko, denying the penetration. Jerebko, who has little experience, gives the ball back to the veteran and let him isolate rather than giving the ball to Monroe, who is covered by Kris Humpries, one of the premier post defenders in NBA history (hint: irony).

Prince posts up Shawne Williams. Williams has several advantages, if not all. He is quicker, and more athletic.

Also, look at the bad spacing of the Pistons. Russell and Jerebko are in no position to score whatsoever. Monroe could take one more step inside to get within his range. Knight sort of hides far away from the basket, but at least he spaces the floor a little bit.

All the Nets are in position to help if Prince gets past his man. Knight should run over to the left wing to take one defender out of the picture, and if his defender decides to double team Prince, Knight could receive a pass and nail a 3-pointer. Jerebko should have stepped into Knight’s spot to create even more space. Another 3-point shooter other than Knight would have certainly helped, but I can’t blame Lawrence Frank for having Russell on the court.

Prince takes the contested fade-away jumper that was to be expected. Do you see Knight? No? Well, he is wide open at the top of the key. All five Nets are in the paint area, and Prince must recognize that. You cannot leave one of your best shooters wide open just so you can take a jumper with a hand in your face –unless you are Kobe Bryant, which Prince is not.

Another possible option would have been passing to Monroe, who has perfect position on Humphries. Granted, this would have been a risky pass, but still possible.

Patrick has written a lot written about Prince’s propensity to shoot, and this is a perfect example. We should let the youngsters try to win games like this. I just don’t see Prince making major contributions much longer, and the Pistons would be better off giving their green players these end-of-game shots.

That was especially evident against the Memphis Grizzlies, one my favorite teams to watch, and their tough defense. The Pistons made a push in the third quarter, but the Grizzlies countered with great defense. Mike Conley had just missed two free throws, and the Pistons were in a sturm-und-drang phase (Ed: Sturm und Drang was an 18th-century movement in German art, and Jakob, a German, apparently knows what that it is. I do not.) and could have come within eight points.

Walker Russell receives the outlet and makes a push for the an easy lay-in. Conley is quick to get back on defense, which gives him a good position to defend the play.

Although Russell is really fast, Conley is quick himself and stays in front of his man to prevent the fastbreak. Russell has to abort the transition look, and the Pistons get another look at the superb Memphis halfcourt defense.

After Russell swings the ball to Tayshaun Prince, he cuts through the lane on the other side in order to create space for the Greg Monroe-Prince pick-and-roll. The pick is not even set when Gasol starts to make the move to show hard on the screen – well, at least as hard as a 7-footer can show.

Even though Prince is quick and has long arms and above-average court vision, he can’t drive past Gasol or hit Monroe with the pass. Mayo covers the corner 3-pointer, and all other scoring angles are shut down as well. Notice how Josh Davis has positioned himself to bother Monroe catching a pass. He’s not in position to deflect it, but he is aware of his responsibility on the weak side. The only available pass is a long pass to Jonas Jerebko behind the 3-point arc. I’m pretty sure that is the shot Lionel Hollins wants his team to give up.

Even though Jerebko is wide open and is shooting 33 percent on the season, he chooses to make the extra pass to Russell. Monroe is already fighting hard on the inside to get good post position. Additionally, look where Conley and Davis are standing. They are relatively far away from the ball in this situation.

A split second later, they are right where the action is. Memphis’ close-outs are supreme. If I wanted my team to learn how to properly close out, I would simply show them Grizzlies tapes. They close out hard and with a huge step, all the while having perfect control over their bodies. Monroe actually has perfect position on Gasol, but Russell fails to get him the ball. Maybe it is a lack of time spent with the team or the general inability of the team to get Monroe more touches, but Russell took Jerebko’s pick. Monroe was furious after the play ended!

Now, Russell does not have position to score. He can either swing the ball to Prince or pass it back Jerebko, because Gasol has recovered on Monroe.

Russell passes the ball back to Jerebko. Jerebko passes up another shot for the pumpfake. Monroe is guarded by Conley, which is quite a mismatch, but once again, Monroe doesn’t get the ball.

Instead, Jerebko passes it back to Russell! Meanwhile, Monroe gets called for a three-second violation.

The Pistons burnt six seconds off the clock in order to have two guys pass the ball back and forth. Monroe was wide open twice!

Memphis intensity during that play was great, and I strongly believe Detroit failed to get the ball inside because the players were afraid of deflections or turnovers.

Every time I saw this play I thought, “Man, this play really looks like it should work. Why the heck doesn’t it?”

Last night against the Bobcats, with about 11 minutes left in the third quarter, they ran the same play again – this time with a different result.

Brandon Knight (great performance, by the way) is dribbling up top. Gordon is right underneath the basket, about to decide whether to use Jerebko’s or Greg Monroe’s screen. He opts for Jerebko’s.

Gordon is an above-average screen user. He’s not quite Ray Allen, but he’s not Stephen Jackson, either.

There are a few essentials when using a screen.

You want to swing through with the leg closer to the screener to run by your teammate as closely as possible. That will give you extra space for your release. Notice how well Gordon is doing that.

Also, he takes a long step with his left leg, enabling him to take a quick shot.

Jerebko’s defender, Boris Diaw, is forced to make a decision. Either he leaves Gordon wide open for a jumper or a drive to the basket, or he steps away from Jerebko to bother Gordon. He chooses the latter.

This is the moment Jerebko stayed at the 3-point line the last time, and Gordon quickly passed the ball out of bounds along the baseline. Jerebko was much more aggressive last night, and instead of fading, he dives right to the basket. Byron Mullens (guarding Monroe on the other side) should be in better help position, but at this point, the play is pretty much over.

Gordon’s quick touch pass reaches Jerebko on point, and he dunks easily.

These are the small things that will improve throughout the season. The Pistons haven’t not had a lot of time to internalize certain parts of the playbook, especially plays like this that demand quick decision-making . I don’t want to go overboard just because we beat a bad team, but there’s an upside to the Pistons, who might have a brighter future than many think.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau is famous for his suffocating defensive system. His players have internalized his principles and execute them almost perfectly. You’ll see how superbly they rotate with so much detail. Even with its best player, Derrick Rose, and starting center, Joakim Noah, off the court, Chicago is tough to score on.

The Pistons had to run and execute an entire play without making a mistake before they got even a decent look.

The play starts with Brandon Knight dribbling on top of the key. Damien Wilkins (great game, by the way) occupies the right wing while Greg Monroe and Jason Maxiell both go into the high post. Rodney Stuckey stands at the far baseline.

Knight passes to Monroe. I have raved about Monroe’s high-post abilities, and I’m glad Lawrence Frank fins him useful there, as well. Maxiell has set a screen for Stuckey, who will come over for the handoff. Meanwhile, Wilkins goes baseline to clear the space. Knight runs to the weakside to spot up for a 3-pointer.

The aforementioned handoff creates a mismatch. Brewer, Stuckey’s defender, is a few feet away from him, and Omer Asik must switch to Stuckey and fill his lane to the basket. Asik does a very good job, although you can see Stuckey could hit Monroe with the bounce pass for an easy lay-in. Stuckey is not an elite passer and instead chooses to pull out and look for a better opportunity.

After pulling out, Stuckey drives to the middle past his man. Brewer is a pretty big guard, so naturally he has problems with a quick and small player like Stuckey. Notice how perfect Chicago’s rotation is! They leave the one guy open who’s not a huge threat, Wilkins, and any other pass will be hard to complete. They play the passing angles impeccably while clogging the lane to prevent the drive. This time, Stuckey chooses not to penetrate against four players (unlike the past couple of years) and passes the ball to the open man.

Wilkins has an open shot, but he passes it up. He hit a few similar shots during the game, but he sees Maxiell has deep post position against Taj Gibson. Wilkins makes the entry pass.

Unfortunately the entry pass is not played ideally. Compare the picture above with the one before. Maxiell’s post position was a lot deeper before he catches the ball. When he makes the catch, he is not in immediate scoring position. Deng doesn’t hesitate and comes to help his teammate. It’s curious to see Maxiell get double-teamed, but it is the defensive scheme and it puts a lot of pressure on Jason. They pretty much reduce his options to going baseline or passing. At the same time, Wilkins comes over to the left wing and screens Knight’s defender.

Knight rids himself of his defender and goes for the floater. The shot is not easy, but he still makes it.

This is a very long play which is perfectly executed by both teams. It is a case of great defense and great offense.

Last night, you could see what Frank is trying to implement. He holds players accountable for their actions and play on the court. It was refreshing to see Charlie Villanueva get pulled after his horrible five minutes. Good coaches usually need time to teach new players. Short-term results tend to suffer, but the team will be a lot tougher and harder to beat in the long-term.

Facing teams like the Bulls shows why Frank has taken this strategy. Anything less than perfect decisions would have almost certainly meant not scoring on that possession – and even perfect decisions were barely enough.

If the Pistons execute that crisply more often, we’ll see rapid improvement. But it requires five players making the right calls to get there.

Lawrence Frank announced before the season that the Pistons would focus on the defensive end (like every coach of every team always says).

Against the Pacers, I couldn’t really spot a change in the team’s defensive alertness, though. The Pistons were lazy and slow on rotations, never really put the effort into their defense and got punished for it. I wrote about Greg Monroe’s shortcomings earlier, he is a part of this example as well. Most of my focus in this one, though, is on veteran Tayshaun Prince. Again, this is just an example out of many, I spotted at least three more in the third quarter alone that were similar to this one.

The Pacers play a side pick-and-roll on the right wing. Roy Hibbert comes over to set a screen towards the middle; Prince is ALREADY out of position at the beginning of the play. Look at how far he is away from Danny Granger, a very good shooter and the Pacers’ go-to scorer. Monroe could go a little higher to distract the ballhandler, but this is meaningless during this play as you will see in the next picture. I absolutely love Indiana’s spacing. Darren Collison is far away from the basket so Granger and Hibbert have the entire right side of the court to themselves.

The defender’s (Prince) duty in guarding the ballhandler (Granger) is to lead him into the screen. You don’t want to give Granger two options and you want to know which option he will use. It also facilitates the job of the teammate, Monroe in this case, to show on the screen. Prince lets Granger go to his right instead of leading him into the screen, which lets the Pistons’ defense basically implode. Now, this can happen every once in a while. After all you have a long season with a lot of pick and roll played against you. Jonas Jerebko on the other side of the court does a nice job of rotating over to try and contest Granger.

So here you see the real breakdown. Monroe showed on the screen, which wasn’t used by Granger. This puts him out of position, and Hibbert cuts right to the basket. There is no way Monroe can get back to his man in time. Prince seems to be caught up by the fact that he let Granger drive to his right. Both Monroe and Prince try to make up for it by going after Granger, completely forgetting to shut down the passing lane. Jerebko did a nice job of contesting the lay-up and Prince needs to step in the passing lane to force the steal. Instead he is watching passively as Granger locates his open teammate. At this point in the play, Monroe and Prince are dead bodies because they don’t have a purpose on defense. If two players aren’t guarding anyone, someone is open.

Granger drops the dime and Hibbert gets the easy two-handed dunk. What bothers me about this isn’t that Prince let Granger get to the basket. He just didn’t try to make up for it afterwards. I once had a coach who never pulled us out of a game if we made a mistake. We could do the stupidest thing and he would let us play through it. The only occasion he would yell at us was if we screwed up and didn’t fight to make it up afterwards. The Pistons have a lot of shortcomings, but if they are not willing to make up for them by hustling 48 minutes per game for 66 games I see a horrible season ahead. There might still be some confusion concerning the new defensive schemes and I hope this is the reason for the effort last night. If this is what we can expect from the team this year the Pistons will be gruesome to watch. They just don’t have the players to play half-heartedly and still win games. This effort will have to improve if the team is going to be competitive at all this season.

I am looking forward to seeing what Lawrence Frank can get out of this team. After all Monroe, Brandon Knight, Jonas Jerebko and Austin Daye are supposed to be young talent helping the team advance into the playoffs. Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Jason Maxiell supposedly suffered under the coaches the past few years and are better players than they have shown. The alleged rotten apple Richard Hamilton is gone, plus the team finally has an owner in place to start a season, so the excuses of the past few seasons are gone. After the first game, though, the results haven’t changed much.

After looking at ways to get Gordon going yesterday, today I’ll focus on Monroe’s pick and roll defense from game one, which wasn’t good against the Pacers.

Monroe was possibly the lone bright spot last year, so naturally, this year, fans expect him to be a leader for the team. I don’t think he is a polished player and might not be for a couple of seasons. I think if he gives the team energy and hustle he will be fine and a very good center. Against Indiana, I was missing the energy. The Pacers killed Detroit on the boards, Monroe looked a bit slow and was often just overpowered by strength (David West), size (Roy Hibbert) and hustle (Tyler Hansbrough). What I found the most lackadaisical, however, was his P&R defense. Here is an instance from the first quarter with about 8:10 to go.

You can see Hibbert setting a screen, not a very good one at that, for his point guard Darren Collison. You can see Gordon should not have a problem fighting over the screen, which is usually your preferred defensive strategy. Nonetheless, Monroe is supposed to show for a split second so he can buy his teammate Gordon a little more time to recover. You do that by taking one strong step, acting as if you want to steal the ball, and then you move back to your own player. Collison would be forced to move back a little bit or at least hesitate and delay his decision. .

Here you can see how far Monroe backs off. Instead of making Collison hesitate, Collison just got to the spot he wanted to get to with ease. Monroe did not show at all. There is of course the possibility of not showing at all and letting the ballhandler try to create off the dribble, but Collison is more of a playmaker and not a big scorer. He wants to find open teammates. Letting him create offense for himself is fine with me, but you need to close down the passing lanes then. As you can see after the screen, Hibbert just runs towards the basket and has a clean lane. Even if Jerebko decided to come over and help he leaves his guy wide open. Monroe needs to put more pressure on the ballhandler and then recover quickly so he closes down the pass. The P&R wasn’t executed very well, yet it killed the Pistons throughout the game. I don’t mean single Monroe out since the entire team did poorly defensively, but I expect that Monroe can improve this part of his game.

As the play unfolds, Collison hits Hibbert with a bounce-pass, Stuckey rotates over and is forced to foul — a 6-foot-4 guy can’t to much more than that against a 7-foot-2 center on the move.

I’ll keep an eye on how Monore performs in the pick and roll the next few weeks. I was pretty thrilled when Monroe hit his first jumper, it really looked as if he had added it to his repertoire. His foul problems might have taken his confidence away, but as I have explained before, he doesn’t need to score 20+ points per game, he needs to show constant defense and then he can improve on offense. I wouldn’t consider the Collison-Hibbert tandem to be a premier P&R team in the league, so if the Pistons struggle to guard those two, how is the defense going to handle Chris Paul and Blake Griffin?

Gordon’s stat line was disappointing again last night. He scored 14 points in 33 minutes on 4-of-14 shooting. After two years of disappointing play, fans expected a great change and a great game.

Although his statistics don’t indicate it, I thought Gordon took great shots within the rhythm of the offense, and more importantly, within his game. I think Lawrence Frank can get him back to his old self, and let’s not forget every scorer has an off night every once in a while. Just look at the quality of the shots, and then decide whether he had a bad game or made poor choices.

Gordon made good choices, but the shots simply didn’t fall. I found an example to show how Frank can maximize Gordon’s value in the second quarter with about 3:30 left.

The Pistons run a set I call “Horns”. Actually, I’m not the only one who does so. NBA 2K players will be accustomed to the name. I know it from my time playing basketball, too.

Ben Wallace (who had a terrific game) sets a screen at the right side of the elbow. Jonas Jerebko and Tayshaun Prince set a double screen at the left side of the elbow. Gordon starts running from the free-throw line using the double-screen to get rid of his defender. Darren Collison reads the situation correctly and cheats under the double screen.

Down under the basket Gordon now has two options. Either he uses Wallace’s screen or he goes back to Jerebko’s screen. This forces his defender to gamble on where he will go in order to stay with him. Collison guesses that Gordon will use Wallace’s screen, maybe because Big Ben is an elite screener. Gordon makes a great read and changes the direction quickly, going back to Jerebko, getting rid of his defender. He gets a wide open midrange-jumper which he drains.

This wasn’t the only quality look Gordon got last night, but one of the few he actually hit. He should make more of them as the season progresses.

He’s always been an elite jump-shooter, and I just cannot believe that he’ll consistently miss open jumpers. If the Pistons execute their offense like this more often, Gordon will score 16 to 18 points per game this year, and you can quote me on that one.

This isn’t just my story. This is Germany’s story.

As a kid, I grew up dreaming about playing in the NBA one day. I had yet to start playing competitive basketball, but the dream was already there. There was a German in the NBA named Detlef Schrempf who had alienated himself from his German fan base by never coming home. Plus, he spoke with an American accent when he spoke his native language (he use a rhotic “r” instead of the German non-rhotic one). So, he was German on paper, but his entire demeanor was thoroughly American.

People here were fascinated by the Michael Jordans, the Karl Malones and the John Stocktons – not so much by Schrempf.

After Jordan’s first retirement, TV stations didn’t even show matches on free television anymore. The basketball world in good old Germany broke down. Weekly games telecasts were replaced by one-hour summaries of games nobody really cared about and NBA Magazine, which was more commercial than actual footage.

That’s when I started paying attention. Sitting in front of my parents’ TV,  I watched whenever there was a minute of basketball on the screen. I loved watching the BBC News to see a few highlights (even though I couldn’t yet understand English, mind you).  I wasn’t the only one. A lot of my teammates did the same back then. We talked about it at practice, discussed the best players, who we want to be and who we’d try to emulate.

Without YouTube or broadband internet, the NBA was a complete myth. Heck, the U.S. itself was a myth to me.

You don’t grow up having a team in your local area. You just hear about the big guys dunking hard on 10-foot rims in America. That certainly impressed a thirteen year-old white boy who barely managed to grab rim.

Around this time, I heard of this Dirk Nowitzki guy who was starting to become a really good player overseas. But I was preoccupied admiring Tracy McGrady. T-Mac was my favorite player. He was smooth, athletic and had this sweet stroke!

Nowitzki was this big white kid (kinda like me), who couldn’t jump high (exactly like me) or do anything flashy except for putting up 20 points per game in the best league of the world with an unreal shooting percentage (unlike me). I should have identified with him, but for some reason I didn’t. I wanted Dirk to be the best European player in the NBA, and maybe if he were, I would’ve connected with him sooner. But at that time, the title belonged to Peja Stojakovic. Times change, eh?

I started learning more English and read how Dirk and Steve Nash had become close friends. I was pretty sad the day Dallas let Nash go to Phoenix. Some people said Dirk was only as good as Nash’s playmaking ability allowed him to be, so I was excited to see how Dirk would turn out the following season. He proved he could score without Nash, but his defense had to improve a lot – and of course, it eventually did.

What I admire most about Nowitzki is how he constantly got better EVERY SINGLE YEAR! For 13 straight years, he’s improved in some way – rebounding, passing, shot-making, post-game. Do you have anything in your life you’ve gotten better at doing each of the past 13 years? It takes so much determination, will, discipline and courage to do it. I’m amazed every time I think about it.

Living in the states, watching Dirk

In 2005, I moved to Michigan as part of a foreign-exchange program. The Pistons had just missed their opportunity for a second-straight title, and Detroit cruised through the regular season my first year in the states. I bought three different jerseys for my new favorite team, but my second favorite team was the Mavs, obviously. My admiration for Dirk had only increased, and I was a proud owner of a Nowitzki jersey (the green one designed by Sean Combs (aka “Puff Daddy”, “P. Diddy”, “Diddy” or “Swag”). When the Pistons somehow lost to the Miami Heat featuring Shaq, Dwyane Wade and a few other player nobody really cared about, I was devastated.

But I rooted for the Mavs in the Finals, donning my Dirk jersey every game. I was happy when they went up 2-0 and dejected they lost three in a row due to some horrible officiating and quite frankly, a few lapses of their own.

It just so happened that my flight back to Germany left during Game Six of the series. Of course, I still wore my Nowitzki jersey. Some flight attendants asked me about it and told me how much they liked Dirk. It felt good, really good. Somehow, although you are simply from the same country, you feel complimented as well. I don’t share anything personal with Dirk. I’m from a different area in Germany, and I’ve never met him. But we speak the same language, have the same nationality, emigrated to the same country and had a passion for the same sport.

When I got off the plane in Frankfurt, I immediately tried to get the score. There was no way the Mavs lost four in a row, right? Sadly enough, they did.

A perfect foe for the Heat

The next few years seemed like an everlasting quest of Dirk seeking the championship. The team always had great regular-season records, only to be eliminated early in the playoffs. I honestly didn’t think Nowitzki would make it.

I know a few die-hard Dirk fans who would get really, really, really hyped up for every season, talking about how great this or that signing was, how Marion was one of the greatest of all time and so on. I mocked the friend who was utterly convinced the Mavs would win it all this year. (In my defense, he makes that statement every year, and it’s largely based on his NBA 2K11 success with Dallas.) I thought the Lakers would three-peat or the Heat would win.

Like seemingly every other NBA fan, I don’t like the Heat. I don’t like the idea of simply putting together three great players and the others don’t matter. In my life, I’ve always been one of the others on the court, so maybe that’s why. But I was glad the Mavs were Miami’s Finals opponent, because Dallas was everything I want from a basketball team – a cohesive unit with a down-to-earth superstar and a great supporting cast.

I had moved away from my basketball friends in Kiel and lived now in Hamburg, a larger city. Soccer is the No. 1 topic in Germany by a landslide. Which team is signing which player? Who is the new manager. What is the national team doing? Does the captain have an infection? The U.S. has so many sports you can watch – baseball, basketball, football and hockey. In Germany, you have soccer and handball (yes, handball). Basketball is an absolute fringe sport.

All of a sudden dozens of friends of mine began approaching me to ask , “Do you think Nowitzki can win it? Do they have a chance? I hear Miami has, like, three really good players!” In Germany, Wade, LeBron and Bosh are just “three really good players.” Most Germans don’t know that Wade and James equals C. Ronaldo and Messi on the same squad.

I watched every game, although I wasn’t as bad as some of my friends who went to a bar at 3 a.m. to watch each game. I have League Pass, so I simply got up a little later, around 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and watched the games before work or university.

I watched Game Six alone in my apartment. From my breakdowns, you know I like to watch games closely, and I wanted to do that for this game, too. You can’t really do that at a bar, where it’s too crowded and too noisy.  Solitude didn’t prevent the game from being an emotional rollercoaster, though.

I knew the Mavs had to win. Of course they could win Game Seven, but Game Six would be so much easier. “Keep going, keep going Dirk!”, I found myself yelling at the screen. I celebrated every miss by the Heat and became angry after every missed opportunity by the Mavs. I yelled at the TV as if they could hear me all the way across the Atlantic. It’s crazy how involved you become when it comes to sports, at least I do.

When the game was close at halftime and Nowitzki was 1-12 from the field, I thought to myself: “If Dirk shoots 50 percent from the field in the second half, the Mavs will win.” Well, Dirk started making shots. I kept waiting for a push by the Heat, for James and Wade to unleash, to attack the basket, to draw fouls. It never happened. I stood in front of the screen the entire last two minutes, clenched hands above my head.

I was texting with friends the entire second half, so I could feel their excitement as well. Afterward, they told me every single detail of their night. I wish I could have been with them to share the moment.

When the game ended, tears started welling up. I don’t exactly remember if one came out, but I know I was very close to it at the very least.

Dirk Nowitzki’s impact

Words can’t describe what Nowitzki did for this country, for the fairly small number of basketball fanatics here. How many casual fans got up as well to support him? How many people who had never watched a game of basketball before stayed up all night because they wanted to see this surreal event?

For basketball fans living in a country where the sport is the third-most-popular team sport at best, it’s nice to get some kind of attention every once a while. Over here, most people look at basketball and say, “Oh yeah, the sport which is contact-free, right?” I always get mad when I hear that, but they just don’t know better. They’ve never been knocked to the floor by a 250-pound guy, so they don’t know what it feels like. It’s not a sport like football or hockey, but compared to soccer? Maybe Dirk will help change that perception.

He’s our son who went into the Wild Wild West and succeeded. It’s a modern-day fairy-tale.  He earns $20 million, but lives in a 2-room apartment. He always works hard, yet stays so humble. He does not have a car for every day of the week, he lives like a normal guy with a normal salary. I’m not judging athletes who spend their money on expensive cars and such. I’m merely saying I like Dirk’s way of living. I do not know why other Germans like him. I can just talk for myself and for a few friends of mine. He’s old school, and I like old school.

It’s also good to have a great guy like Dirk represent your “breed.” I’m a die-hard Pistons fan, but I will buy the Dallas championship DVD (my second one, after the Pistons 2004 DVD). One day, I will show them to my children and say, “Look, I want you to play like this. This is a team!” Over here, it felt so good that the right person won with the right team. Dirk Nowitzki is a genuine nice guy who made it as a leader in a world of fake tough guys. The odds were stacked against him ever since he entered the league, and nobody thought he would lead a team to a championship. But he proved you don’t have to be a clear-cut alpha male to dominate the sport.

As long as you work hard and lead by example, you will succeed. That’s why the championship meant so much to the German fan base.

He’s one of ours, and he keeps the dream alive that anyone can make it.