Category → Notes
Alonzo Gee interests Pistons
John Telich of Fox 8 Cleveland:
Heard of at least three teams interested in Alonzo Gee of
#Cavs Phoenix, Minnesota, and Detroit. He is a RFA in 2012
You might remember Gee from such posts as “Pistons can’t keep Alonzo Gee off the offensive glass in loss to Cleveland.” He’s a nice young player, and although small forward isn’t the Pistons’ greatest need, he’d be a fine addition at the right price.
Brendan Bowers of Stepien Rules:
Heard Phoenix Suns are looking to offer RFA Alonzo Gee a multi-year deal in $4 million per season range & are in lead for his services
#Cavs
That should be more than the Pistons are willing to spend for Gee when they have more pressing big-man needs. “Interested in” is a low bar, and Detroit is probably interested in hundreds of players. I like Gee, but if I were the Pistons, I wouldn’t best that offer.
Greg Monroe and his mom share close relationship, Mother’s Day cookout
Vince Ellis wrote a solid Mother’s Day feature that’s well worth reading about Greg Monroe and his mom. An excerpt:
Despite being a budding NBA star, Greg hasn’t gotten too big for his home area. He gets back to New Orleans as often as possible.
And he plans to be in town today, Greg and Norma say, when the family goes to First Emmanuel Baptist Church for services.
Then Norma said the family will gather at her mother’s house for a cookout that probably will feature ribs, pork chops and smoked sausage, with crawfish boiling over to the side.
Greg won’t sit idly by — he usually helps his uncles on the grill. Greg’s favorite dish is shrimp pasta, so he might roll up his sleeves and create the dish.
Former Piston Jermaine Jackson talks about making the team as an undrafted rookie
Over at the other basketball site I write for, BallInMichigan.com, I have a story about former Detroit Finney and University of Detroit standout Jermaine Jackson, who played a few seasons in the NBA and had a nice pro career overseas as well.
Most of the story discusses Jackson’s current work with young people in the Detroit area, but he did discuss making the Pistons roster as an undrafted rookie in 1999:
By the time he got an invite to Pistons training camp, he was ready and didn’t want to let the opportunity to play for his hometown team slip away.
“I was running five miles a day and went into camp with the Pistons in the best shape of my life,” Jackson said. “I listened to what all those pros said, I got myself into great shape, and I made the team. It was like I was in Disney World, bro. I came from drinking sugar water and calling it Kool-Aid and putting water on my cereal to playing in the NBA, sitting on the same bench as Grant Hill and Jerry Stackhouse and Lindsey Hunter. How could I keep my composure? I’m still on a high from that experience.”
And, since I have your attention, if you’re a fan of high school basketball or small college basketball or historical features on ball or the rich legacy of basketball in Michigan in general, bookmark BallInMichigan, follow on Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to the RSS feed.
Chuck Daly’s genius set up Dream Team to win 1992 Olympics
Did you know the original Dream Team lost?
Before the Olympics, the top NBA stars (minus Isiah Thomas) lost to a group of college players, including future Pistons Grant Hill and Chris Webber, in a scrimmage. Ben Steele of Order of the Court explains what had been known about it:
The scrimmage wasn’t taped and was held behind closed doors. There was no official scoring, so accounts widely differ. Michael Wilbon reported in The Washington Post that the collegians won, 88-80. David Halberstam has the score as 58-52 in “Playing For Keeps.” Johnson and Bird recall losing the 20-minute scrimmage 62-54 in “When The Game Was Ours.”
Turns out, it was taped (score: 62-54) and will be shown as part of a documentary an NBA TV on June 13. And – it gets better – the documentary will show it was all part of Chuck Daly’s plan. Richard Sandomir of The New York Times:
The scrimmage lost to the college players was a fix, part of Coach Chuck Daly’s plan to demonstrate to team loaded with 11 future Basketball Hall of Famers that they could lose in international competition.
“He threw the game,” Mike Krzyzewski, who assisted Daly, along with Wilkens and P.J. Carlesimo, said in the documentary. Daly calmly told Krzyzewski during the scrimmage, “We’re all right.”
(In 2008, Krzyzewski made similar remarks when he said, “Chuck wanted them to lose.”)
In the documentary, he said: “If you look at how much Jordan played and how he subbed the guys in, not picking up, not making any adjustments; he knew what he was doing.”
Asked why Daly didn’t confide his intentions to his assistants, Krzyzewski said: “We probably would have screwed it up.”
Before the media filed in after the scrimmage, Daly ordered that the result be banished from the scoreboard. At their next and last scrimmage, the Dream Team trounced the collegians.
Greg Monroe ties for fourth in Most Improved Player Award voting
Ryan Anderson won this year’s Most Improved Player Award and Greg Monroe of the Pistons finished fourth. Here are the results, via NBA.com:
Monroe finished tied with Andrew Bynum of the Lakers. One theory out there about Monroe inexplicably getting a Defensive Player of the Year third place vote is that a writer may have mixed up his ballots and accidentally voted for Monroe on DPOY rather than Most Improved. If that was indeed the case (and we’re still trying to figure out who gave him that vote), that one vote would’ve given Monroe fourth place by himself.
As far as the Most Improved voting itself, I wouldn’t have picked Anderson simply because he was already close to this good last season, it must’ve just taken the majority of voters an extra season to notice he can play. In the TrueHoop Network awards, I voted James Harden first, Nikola Pekovic second and DeMarcus Cousins third. Honestly though, this award was the a pretty hard one to vote for. There were legit cases for a lot of guys this season.
Sticking up for John Hollinger
John Hollinger’s recent tweet – “One more for @sportsguy33 asterisk list: ’04 Pistons. Nets, Pacers, Lakers all had key injuries against them” – has raised the hackles of Detroit Bad Boys’ Mike Payne and Pistons by the Numbers’ Ben Gulker, a couple Pistons bloggers who I think typically do a very good job.
Starting with a compliment? Bet you can see where I’m going.
First, some context. Bill Simmons ranked “the 20 most fortunate breaks an NBA champion ever received,” explaining the premise:
A basketball season always features collateral damage, whether it’s injuries, lucky breaks or someone stupidly assaulting a fire extinguisher. Asterisks should be saved for fishier achievements like Bonds’s 73 homers, Roger Clemens’s last few Cy Youngs and Pia Zadora winning a Golden Globe. A "footnote title" respects the champion while also acknowledging that, "Look, SOMETHING funky happened and you can’t discuss that postseason in detail without mentioning that one funky thing."
Hollinger’s tweet followed that.
Again, in context: The whole idea of the discussion – which I find pointless, though maybe fun* – is that Simmons still “respects the champion.” If Hollinger is following that lead, I think it would stand to reason he does, too.
*Simmons’ whole premise is sort of silly, which he basically admits. If he wanted to, he could’ve come up with footnotes for every championship team. They’re fun to discuss, but they don’t make a championship less meaningful.
Before we go further, it’s worth pointing out that Hollinger is right. The Pistons benefited from injuries. I don’t think that takes away from the Pistons’ title – their training staff deserves credit for keeping everyone healthy, and unlike their opponents, they didn’t rely on as many older players – but Hollinger is right.
Associated Press on Jason Kidd:
The star point guard has struggled with a knee injury, and there has been speculation that his back hurts, too. But Kidd refused to talk about his injuries during the series — or after.
K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
Jermaine O’Neal reported to yesterday’s morning shoot-around complaining of increased swelling in his left knee.
Considering him more gimpy than go-to, Indiana rarely worked the ball inside and O’Neal finished with 11 points on 10 shots while battling pain, foul trouble and a bulky knee brace.
Indiana played at far less than full strength, with Jamaal Tinsley still battling several injuries in his left leg and taking multiple trips to the locker room. Backup point guard Anthony Johnson played with the stomach flu.
But O’Neal, an All-NBA second-team selection who finished third in balloting for Most Valuable Player this season, is the fuel for the Pacers’ racecar.
He originally sprained his left knee in the first quarter of Indiana’s Game 4 victory on Friday. But he returned to contribute 12 points and 13 rebounds in 38 minutes and felt so confident about his injury on Saturday that he declared it a "non-issue."
Then came yesterday.
"It’s an injury," O’Neal said. "It takes away some of your mobility. It won’t get better overnight, so I’ll have to find a way to deal with it. This series isn’t over."
Adding to the intrigue were conflicting stories by Carlisle and O’Neal, the former saying the swelling required the draining of fluids and the latter denying that.
This much is clear: O’Neal didn’t get enough touches for 38 minutes of action.
Karl Malone is playing despite having what he believes to be a torn ligament in his right knee, and Derek Fisher and Devean George have also been slowed by injured knees.
Again, this shouldn’t take away from Detroit’s title. Every championship team receives some degree of luck, and this is the area where the Pistons caught a break.
This also isn’t Hollinger’s anti-Detroit bias. He hasn’t been shy about complimenting those Pistons, like he did the year before their championship:
So the Pistons don’t have the superstar talent we’re used to seeing in conference championship teams. They’re built more on the lines of recent deep, big teams like Indiana or Portland. David Stern is probably praying they don’t make it to the Finals; selling viewers on a team with 10 interchangeable parts tends to go against the league’s marketing M.O.
But with the emergence of Prince at small forward and Okur up front, these Pistons are the best team in the East. I didn’t believe it all season. But after Friday, there’s not a doubt in my mind.
And it’s not him covering for the fact that PER, the stat he created, underrated the Pistons’ top defenders, especially Ben Wallace. He freely admits PER has shortcomings:
Bear in mind that PER is not the final, once-and-for-all evaluation of a player’s accomplishments during the season. This is especially true for defensive specialists — such as Quinton Ross and Jason Collins — who don’t get many blocks or steals.
It’s just Hollinger giving another example of a team that caught a break on its way to a championship. The 2004 Pistons, in that regard, were just like the title teams before and after them. I don’t think it cheapens their accomplishment to admit that.
John Henson a perfect fit for the Pistons
Perfect fit: John Henson
Henson presents the Pistons with a low risk/high reward opportunity. At worst, he will be a defensive upgrade off the bench, and someone who should develop into a better-than-average rebounder once he fills out physically. He can pair with Monroe to become a fearsome defensive duo; both players are agile and coordinated. Henson also has significant offensive upside, improving each year at North Carolina as he developed strength and touch. He’s not a good shooter — yet — but he’s certainly improved in that area, as well.
My guess is he will end up being a solid shooter and someone who will be able to score consistently inside. The nice thing about Henson is that he does not have to be a big-time scorer to be a positive contributor for the Pistons. But he has the potential to be a legit 16-point, 10-rebound guy while also routinely being among the league leaders in blocks. He’s 21 with an 18-year-old’s body.
The Pistons have 20 minutes a game for him next season, at least, which would allow him to improve considerably as he continues to mature physically. As he, Monroe and Knight get another year or two of seasoning, considering their collective intelligence and high basketball IQ, they would form an excellent foundation to help the Pistons to return to the playoffs.
If the Pistons don’t move up in the lottery and none of the top-tier players fall, Henson already would’ve been my preference at No. 9. After reading this, I’m even more excited about him.
Joe Dumars in Spain courting Kyle Singler
Wendell Maxey of Ridiculous Upside:
Well, it’s not exactly a done deal at this point that Singler will join the Pistons next season. Right now, Dumars and Detroit’s front office is still trying to reach an agreement with Singler to play summer league.
That’s a start — a chance to sell Singler on officially making the NBA jump.
Here’s the reality: the 23-year-old is getting a chance to see the world and play basketball and a high level and doesn’t appear in a rush to leave a pretty great set-up any time soon. A season playing in the ACB and Euroleague certainly hasn’t hurt Singler at all. Still, it’s been said Dumars expects Singler to be part of Detroit’s summer-league roster when the Orlando Summer League takes place from July 9-13, along with Brandon Knight, Austin Daye and Vernon Macklin for starters.
According to Maxey, Singler didn’t play all that well in front of Dumars, although he’s having a solid season overall in Spain. I don’t know if Singler is any kind of answer for them at small forward, but the Pistons used an early second round pick on him, so like Singler’s decision to put off the NBA and play in Spain or not, it’s in Detroit’s best interests to get him here and see if he can be a NBA contributor or not.
Tayshaun Prince: Ben Wallace undecided on retirement
Tayshaun Prince on Ben Wallace‘s potential retirement, via Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press:
“I think it is a situation where he is still thinking about it,” Prince said. “One side is telling him it is time to spend time with the family and relax a little bit, and then the other side is saying I still have more left in the tank.”
We’ve echoed the sentiment here quite a bit, but Wallace still clearly has the ability to be a solid rotation caliber big man in the league. The Pistons need him and, as Dan Feldman has pointed out, the window for people to actually have the ability to play a professional sport is such a small one, professional athletes shouldn’t walk away until they’re totally ready to do it. If Wallace retires and realizes a year from now he still has the desire to play, the ability might not be there to match that desire.
Someone — no joke — gave Greg Monroe a Defensive Player of the Year vote
I’m as big a Greg Monroe fan as anyone, but this is a tad ridiculous:
Someone gave Monroe a third place vote for Defensive Player of the Year.
I’ve made cases several times that Monroe hasn’t gotten nearly his due in awards voting, particularly last season, but wow … Defensive Player of the Year? I don’t think Monroe would even finish third on the Pistons if they ranked their top defensive players this season, and they’re not even a good defensive team.
Seriously, this needs to be investigated. I have to know who voted for him.
