Arron Afflalo traded along with Walter Sharpe to Denver for a future 2nd rounder, clearing $1.8 million in cap space. Via Adrian Wojnowski of YahooSports

Good luck Arron, give Chauncey our best.

As the cleaning of house keeps rolling something tells me a big deal is on the horizon.

Most of you, including myself, aren’t very happy with the prospect of Glen “Big Baby” Davis donning a Pistons uni, but the chances of it just went up.  We wait again…. in what has turned out to be one of the craziest offseasons I can remember.

With the Piston down two games to the Cavaliers in the first round and showing no fight whatsoever, what do Pistons fans do?  For one we admit to ourselves that the team we once knew is only a shell of its former self.  We may lay blame on Joe, Tayshaun, Curry, Rip, Sheed, AI or the lack of leadership.  But honestly what does that get us other than frustrated?  Sure it’s been a good run, but with the talent on this team it shouldn’t end like this.

I’m not claiming it’s over, but it’s hard to stay positive when you have watched this team go through the motions all season long. When you look back at the ‘08-’09 Season can you think of one positve thing about it?

Let’s see…..

• We lost our leader to Denver
• We in turn received a Superstar that said all the right things when he got here, but didn’t make good on a single one.
• We had a season with a new coach that was clearly over his head, especially after Joe D’s “BIG” trade
• Dyess shipped and thankfully returned
• A non existent rotation.
• Sixth man beef!
• Small ball
• Defense disappearance
• Offensive difficulties
• Rodney Stuckey wall
• Kwame Brown
• Arron Afflalo, despite decent play getting buried.
• Cap space
• Hooper doing something….
• A losing season
• An end to a Sellout Streak
• The disappearance of Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell
• Barley making it to the post season
• Chuck Daly’s fight with Cancer
• The loss of a Great Man, Pistons owner Bill Davidson.

Should I go on?

The only bright spot I can think of right now is guy like Will Bynum making a name for himself after a long road to try to live his dream in the NBA. And helping Detroit along the way.

The Pistons compiled a video with a few bright spots, but does it take away the negative?

Now it’s your turn, vent in the comments.

FSN and The Pistons compiled the best plays of 2008. So good I supersized the Video!

Needless to say The Big Denial made the list.

As most of you know by now, Rodney Stuckey didn’t make the trip out to California with the team, staying behind to get checked out after complaining of dizziness during the Celtics game on Sunday. Coach Curry doesn’t expect Stuckey to make it to the game, but he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Rodney making it out to California to finish off the West Coast trip.

He will however be ready to play Tayshaun as a point forward:

“Tay is going to facilitate some of our offense,” Curry said after the Pistons’ two-hour practice at Arco Arena Monday. “He will get into it with Allen handing it off to Tay. And there are other sets that Tay will start himself.”

“We are just getting Tay into a mode where he’s aggressive all the time and I don’t want to take that away,” Curry said. “I would rather figure out the other stuff out first. Because at the end of the day, we are going to need Tay to be aggressive, especially in the playoffs when he’s going against the elite three-men in the game” Via The Detroit News

On another note, I won’t make a Narcolepsy joke about Walter Sharpe missing the team plane to California. He made his own way out West and to the Arena (and hour late for practice) and will be fined by the team, but will be ready to play tonight if need be.

This could be Iverson’s first win in a Piston uniform, the 3-4 Kings will be without Kevin Martin as well as backup guards Francisco Garcia and Quincy Douby. It seems like a lifetime ago that Detroit beat the Kings, so this is as good time as any.

Tip off is at 10:00 PM and will be broadcast locally on FSN and CSNCA for those of you in California. As always you can catch it on the radio at WDFN 1130 AM The Fan or stream it live at NBA.com.

To keep you busy until tip remember – Rasheed Wallace is a Toaster! ( from the good people of Free Darko) My suggestion…if you read any book any time soon make sure it’s this one.
FreeDarko presents The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today’s Game

You know the drill, you can leave your thoughts in the comments as well as THE CHAT ROOM now or at gametime.

Full Clip of the Reverse Jam!

Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit

We all know that Detroit didn’t make any major moves this summer and will be starting the season on Wednesday with very familiar faces. With that said, when you look at what Detroit has at the end of the bench are you more confident in this team than you have been in the past?

Personally I am looking at this season in a very positive way. As much as we all like the usual suspects, I’m looking forward to seeing more of Detroit’s youth movement. I have been on the Amir and Maxiell bandwagon since it’s first trip and can’t wait to see more of both of them this season. Rodney Stuckey has proven what he can do, so that’s another glimmer of hope for this season. And Afflalo has proven (to me at least) that he’s even better than expected when drafted. The big question here is the rest of Detroit’s bench?

Do the Walters’, Samb, Brown, Bynum and Acker have what it takes to help Detroit make another run at the title?  Blaha and Kelser broke it down for us the other night on the FSN Broadcast.

Thanks to everyone for being patient while Need4Sheed was experiencing technical difficulties. You may see me tweak the layout a bit, but for the most part the move from blogger is behind me. Thus the very lengthy Around The Way for the week or so I wasn’t able to update you

• Amir will start in Miami on Sunday night when The Pistons kick off the pre-season. This one isn’t broadcast but you can listen to it live at NBA.com.
• The Shock up 2-0 in the WNBA Finals.
• The D is back.
• Rasheed Wallace had a few things to say about …Flip to WDFN’S Stoney and Wojo. (Audio)
• Observations from open practice.
• Detroit hopes Tayshaun will Dominate.
• Walter Herrmann shined.
• Great interview with Matt of DBB over at Empty The Bench about all things Detroit Pistons.
• PistonNationBlog interviews Will Bynum.
• Empty The Bench also asked me a few questions about Detroit, Sheed and the website.
• Some have asked me to go into a little more detail about the background behind the site, well Patrick Hayes of the Flint Journal made sure you found out a bit more in his interview with me.
• ESPN’S John Hollinger’s Pistons forecast: “Biggest Weakness: Star power”
• Rip bashes Flip.
• Michael Curry doesn’t like it when you say he’s inexperienced.
• Pistons add Alex Acker to the roster.
  Joe Dumars talks to The World According to TD (a Cleveland sports bog).
• One of my fellow bloggers, Ryan from HoopsAddict is trying out for the D League. Can’t wait to see how he does.
• Katlin Urka the General Manager of WOLV-TV in Ann Arbor interviews Kwame Brown on media day as well as Chauncey Billups and Arron Afflalo. Walter Sharp wanted and edit and didn’t get it.