Jon Bois of SB Nation recently compiled a list of some of the worst slogans used by NBA teams, and the Pistons did make his list twice — for the ’50 seasons of hard work’ slogan in 2007-08 and the ‘We work as one’ slogan from 2008-09. But check out his entire list. Many teams made it way more than twice and a lot of those slogans are genuinely, irredeemably awful. I LOLed at Charlotte’s ‘Prepare today, own tomorrow’ slogan they used this season. Did the Bobcats really market the fact that they’d be tanking?

We all remember the Pistons-Lakers game earlier this season — it was arguably the high point of the year for the Pistons, namely because of Rodney Stuckey going toe-to-toe with Kobe Bryant down the stretch and winning. Stuckey’s barrage of highlights included a sick crossover on Bryant, which made NBA.com’s list of top 10 crossovers of the season in the video above.

Hat tip, NBC Pro Basketball Talk

Brandon Knight, who finished eighth in Rookie of the Year voting, appears to be doing his best to play better next season. The above photos show a Knight and Jermaine Taylor (a former Central Florida player who’s spent time with the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings) working with trainer Stan Remy. They were practicing near Miami at the Hallendale High School gym, which is not air-conditioned, so that probably explains Knight’s sweat-drenched shirt.

"We train everyday no matter what’s going on,” Knight said through a publicist. “Weekends. Holidays. Mother’s Day. We take time to spend with our families, but in order to get to the next level on the court, there are no days off."

Rookie, Team 1^st 2^nd 3^rd Total

Kyrie Irving, Cleveland 117 2 1 592

Ricky Rubio, Minnesota – 49 23 170

Kenneth Faried, Denver 1 30 34 129

Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio 1 9 15 47

Iman Shumpert, New York 1 7 7 33

Klay Thompson, Golden State -  5 15 30

Isaiah Thomas, Sacramento – 6 10 28

Brandon Knight, Detroit – 6 3 21

Chandler Parsons, Houston – 3 5 14

MarShon Brooks, New Jersey – 1 1 4

Kemba Walker, Charlotte – - 3 3

Josh Selby, Memphis -  – 1 1

As someone who thought Knight was a borderline All-Rookie second teamer, I think that’s most fair, if not a little generous to Knight. He showed strong promise, but this award should honor the rookies who are the best right now. Knight’s strong counting stats (total points, assists, etc.) alone don’t convince me he belongs anywhere near a Rookie of the Year ballot, considering his game is still fairly flawed.

On the bright side, it’s not definite, but Knight appears likely to make the All-Rookie second team. The All-Rookie teams are position independent, so it doesn’t matter that Knight was the sixth guard in voting.

Starbury would go on to tweet many things—on varied subjects—including how blessed his life is, how all things are possible through Christ, the implications of his statue on world history and, of course, the debt the United States owes to China. Oh, and Dennis Rodman was there to give some sort of speech.

Why is China building a statue of Stephon Marbury? Does the statue also have a tattoo on the side of its head? Why is Dennis Rodman giving a speech during the unveiling? Why is water wet?

DeMarcus Cousins, DeJuan Blair, Taj Gibson and Derrick Favors were the interior bigs who made the select team. In many ways, Monroe compares favorably to those four, but the USA Select team’s primary goal is to prepare the Olympic team. Who knows whether – because of their style and/or ability to imitate potential opponents – those four made the team even if Jerry Colangelo believes Monroe is better?

For that matter, who knows whether Monroe was invited an declined?

I would’ve like to see Monroe make the team, but without more information, it’s difficult to summon any outrage and cry snub.

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.

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.

My explanations for Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player can be found at Basketball Prospectus.

Most Valuable Player

Dan Feldman

1. LeBron James

2. Kevin Durant

3. Chris Paul

4. Dwight Howard

5. Kevin Love

Patrick Hayes

1. LeBron James

2. Chris Paul

3. Kevin Durant

4. Tony Parker

5. Russell Westbrook

This award is basically LeBron James and everyone else. The only other player I seriously considered in my top five was Love. I probably went with Westbrook because of this.

Defensive Player of the Year

Dan Feldman

1. Tyson Chandler

2. Dwight Howard

3. Kevin Garnett

Patrick Hayes

1. LeBron James

2. Tyson Chandler

3. Andre Iguodala

I’m tired of the bias against perimeter players in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. I’m fine with Tyson Chandler winning, but LeBron James is the most impactful non-Dwight Howard defender in the league. He’s always in passing lanes, he can block shots and he can lockdown any of the three perimeter positions. Plus, he could probably guard most power forwards in the league effectively.

Rookie of the Year

Dan Feldman

1. Kyrie Irving

2. Ricky Rubio

3. Kenneth Faried

Patrick Hayes

1. Kyrie Irving

2. Ricky Rubio

3. Isaiah Thomas

Choosing who to pick third between Manimal and Thomas was one of the tougher choices on my ballot. Ultimately, I picked Thomas not only because he was very productive, but because of his draft position (last player picked) and the fact that the Kings’ backcourt is loaded with players with better pedigrees — Tyreke Evans, Jimmer Fredette, Marcus Thornton — in front of him, his path to earning minutes as a rookie was harder. He not only earned minutes, he was better than all those guys in front of him.

Sixth Man of the Year

Dan Feldman

1. James Harden

2. Jason Terry

3. Taj Gibson

Patrick Hayes

1. James Harden

2. Lou Williams

3. Thad Young

Seriously, there was no competition for this one. Harden was by far the best non-starter in the league. As for my other picks? Williams and Young were both integral parts in Philly’s surprising start to the season. I had a hard time picking just one of them, so I picked them both. I could easily flip-flop them between second and third though. I could argue Taj Gibson in that mix though too.

Most Improved Player

Dan Feldman

1. Jeremy Lin

2. Nikola Pekovic

3. Ersan Ilyasova

Patrick Hayes

1. James Harden

2. Nikola Pekovic

3. DeMarcus Cousins

Harden went from nice scorer off the bench to a legit ‘third’ for an Oklahoma City big three. Pekovic made the Darko Milicic signing easier to forget. I normally wouldn’t pick a player like Cousins, who should’ve improved anyway from year one to year two, but after Paul Westphal was fired, not only did Cousins production improve immensely, so did his demeanor. He also came into this season in much better shape. So he gets a Most Improved vote for his on and off court improvement.

Coach of the Year

Dan Feldman

1. Gregg Popovich

2. Tom Thibodeau

3. Frank Vogel

Patrick Hayes

1. Ty Corbin

2. Gregg Popovich

3. Tom Thibodeau

Corbin was my choice simply because so little was expected out of the Jazz this season. For them to get to the playoffs is pretty impressive, although since it appears a good percentage of his team might hate him, I might reconsider that vote in hindsight. Popovich is the best in the world and Thibodeau held together a team that dealt with catastrophic injuries. Either are worthy candidates.

Executive of the Year

Dan Feldman

1. Neil Olshey

2. Larry Bird

3. R.C. Buford

Everyone says teams don’t get equal returns when trading a superstar. Olshey took advantage of that.

Patrick Hayes

1. Neil Olshey

2. Masai Ujiri

3. R.C. Buford

You get one of the four or five legit franchise players in he league, you get this award. Olshey did so he does. Ujiri put together an insanely fun team, got out of Nene’s contract before injuries/age could make the return on it less, picked up Andre Miller for the gigantic Ray Felton and drafted one of the most productive players in the draft in Kenneth Faried. Buford always gets a spot in this top three by default.

Sportsmanship Award

Dan Feldman

1. Shane Battier

2. Jeremy Lin

3. Antawn Jamison

4. Luke Ridnour

5. Chris Paul

6. Jason Kidd

Maybe I’m biased and voted for the Michigander, but Battier seems like the type of guy who would never do this to someone.

Patrick Hayes

1. Jeremy Lin

2. Antawn Jamison

3. Luke Ridnour

4. Shane Battier

5. Chris Paul

6. Jason Kidd

Lin dealt with distractions that I can’t even fathom this season, and handled everything remarkably well.

Citizenship Award

Dan Feldman

1. LeBron James

LeBron and Dwyane Wade’s effort to raise awareness to Trayvon Martin’s death was commendable.

Patrick Hayes

1. LeBron James

What Feldman said.

All-NBA

Dan Feldman

First team

• G: Chris Paul
• G: Dwyane Wade
• F: LeBron James
• F: Kevin Durant
• C: Dwight Howard

Second team

• G: Tony Parker
• G: Russell Westbrook
• F: Kevin Love
• F: Blake Griffin
• C: Andrew Bynum

Third team

• G: Kobe Bryant
• G: Rajon Rondo
• F: Dirk Nowitzki
• F: Kevin Garnett
• C: Tyson Chandler

Slotting Griffin, Nowitzki, Garnett and a few other forwards was tough. All were very good, but none great.

Patrick Hayes

First team

• G: Chris Paul
• G: Tony Parker
• F: LeBron James
• F: Kevin Durant
• C: Dwight Howard

Second team

• G: Dwyane Wade
• G: Russell Westbrook
• F: Kevin Love
• F: Dirk Nowitzki
• C: Andrew Bynum

Third team

• G: Steve Nash
• G: Rajon Rondo
• F: LaMarcus Aldridge
• F: Kevin Garnett
• C: Tyson Chandler

Yeah, I left Kobe off. Sue me. Sorry, but I found Nash nearly dragging Phoenix to the playoffs more impressive than Kobe shooting almost the same number of shots per game as the two most efficient scorers on his team combined.

All-Defensive

Dan Feldman

First team

• Tyson Chandler
• Dwight Howard
• Kevin Garnett
• LeBron James
• Andre Iguodala

Second team

• Tony Allen
• Dwyane Wade
• Avery Bradley
• Josh Smith
• Joakim Noah

Shawn Marion just missed my cut, and on a different day, he would’ve made the second team.

Patrick Hayes

First team

• Tyson Chandler
• Dwight Howard
• Kevin Garnett
• LeBron James
• Andre Iguodala

Second team

• Tony Allen
• Luol Deng
• Rajon Rondo
• Chris Paul
• Josh Smith

Putting Allen and Rondo on the second team rather than the first was the hardest thing I had to do in these awards. There’s actually a large number of really good defensive players in the league right now. You could probably make a case for four guys off the the Bulls alone to make it.

All-Rookie

Dan Feldman

First team

• Kyrie Irving
• Ricky Rubio
• Kenneth Faried
• Kawhi Leonard
• Isaiah Thomas

Second team

• Iman Shumpert
• Klay Thompson
• Chandler  Parsons
• MarShon Brooks
• Gustavo Ayon

I could’ve gone either way on Brooks and Brandon Knight, but right now, I wish I would’ve voted for Knight.

Patrick Hayes

First team

• Kyrie Irving
• Ricky Rubio
• Kenneth Faried
• Kawhi Leonard
• Isaiah Thomas

Second team

• Iman Shumpert
• Brandon Knight
• Chandler  Parsons
• MarShon Brooks
• Klay Thompson

I agree with Dan. He should’ve voted for Knight.

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.”

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