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.
Just wanted to defend myself for the few scoffs I got from my last post.
A. Do I love Mr. Big shot? Hell yes- along with most of the other players that have played their hearts outs for us over the last half decade just so spoiled fans could cheer them when they were sensational and boo them when they had a rough night.
B. Was I overeacting? No- I wasn’t ever REacting. I simpyl have a brief list of facts that come with the territory of trading a guy like Billups (and {paritally} McDyess) for a “super star”.
C. Is any of this A.I.’s fault? Absolutely not. I’ve always thought he was a pretty good player and a great offensive player, and I don’tmind having him in a Pistons uniform. However, he’s not resposnible for the last two loses or the trade at all. He’s just an athelte doing his best, so I’m certainly not blaming him.
D. Is it fair to judge anything about the team’s success after two games and one practice? Of course not- which is why I said we should all be patient towards the end of my list. I might suggest that people read an enire comment before they reply to it.
Here’s to a W tonight vs. the Kings.
Alot’s gone on over the past week, I”ve left my thoughts on the current pistons as a whole on my blog, click on my name as it’s worth a read.
Let’s hope to get back to winning ways tonight, go pistons!
yup… i too am hoping for a win
i also hope to see among other things, a kings team WITHOUT kevin martin or their backup guards be held to 90 points or less
lastly, congrats to billups who hasnt had any growing pains and has helped lead his team to a 3-0 record since he joined them
haha wow… what a great start
Whew… Part of me is glad I didn’t pull the trigger on League Pass before the trade.
trade them all this team fucking sucks
I still think we should bring AI off the bench and start stuckey and hamilton.
Have AI mostly back up at the 2 but also at the 1. Have hamilton also play the 3. Hamilton is 6’7 and would hold his own fine at the 3.
Imagine are bench with AI coming off of it.
any feed back on what you all think about what I proposed? May sound crazy. pistons are rolling back now
LOL good point TDP
Amir has done nothing, RIp is still way off, Sheed isin’t doing his thing not great bench play and yet it is still close at the half. Wow. Good thing Sacramento isin good or this game would be a blowout.
good second quarter defensively (and offensively, but im still a lot more worried about the defense)… still, this game should not be tied.,.. pistons should be up by a lot more
what im getting worried about is… seriously btw… does mcdyess wanna come back?
a) he was traded, he might feel hurt by that unless he knew he was coming back (i.e. pre-arranged)
b) he might not feel the same level of trust with the organization, knowing that billups was the finals mvp and was let go just like that
c) most importantly tho, does he believe this team can win a championship? he cant like what he sees… if he doesnt see a championship with the team i see him retiring
hopefully im wrong tho, cuz we need him badly (we obviously need billups badly too lol, but not gonna happen)
trying to watch AI stay with his man makes me cringe… takes away from his great offensive game tonite… so he just cant ad/or doesnt want to stick to his man lol… if u just look at him on defense, concentrate on him and his man… u’ll see exactly what i mean
I can’t wait until A.I. drops 50 on ’em and shuts us all up.
First off:I’ll say that I don’t live in Michigan anymore so I watch the games on ESPN gamecast. So I’m not the greatest source.
It did look though, that they played alot of 3 guard set/ or throwing hamilton at the 3 position. I really like that. I don’t like AI as a PG i would really like him though as a SG. Bigs played for 81 minutes to the guards 116!
I’de also like to add that AI had a great game offensively! 30 pts. 9 assists and 7 rebounds. Very close to a triple double!
Tay looks to be making the best of this trade, I wish that hamilton and sheed would too!
Hey Ryan! I agree with you, I chimed in the same sentiments a few days back. Like I said, with McD back, out second unit would be lethal.
C/PF – McD, JMax
SF – Herrmann/Afflalo
SG – AI
PG – Bynum
Ugh, this was a close one- and the Kings didn’t have Kevin Martin.
On the bright side, A.I. finally is looking more like himself. I was not in favor of the trade, but it was made for a reason. They traded to get Allen Iverson, not someone who tried to be Chauncey Billups. The results were a rather good offensive performance and a lackluster defensive one.
On the bright side- Rasheed finally got into the post for the first time in 3 games. He got on the low block 3 times.
1 was an and 1, another was a successful turnaround jumper (he’s a toaster). Two others resulted in fantastic passes (one of which was an assist, the other Rip missed the layup for who-knows why), and 1 of the 5 times he posted up resulted in a missed shot. He was 0-3 from behind the arc. I’m sooo happy he got back into the post.
Why was there no Fabio tongiht?!
Will Bynum continues to impress me. 6 points, 2 dimes and a board in his 15 minutes of fame isn’t bad considering AI was on the floor with him.
*Rasheed got on the low block 5 times, not 3. Hense the 5 results.
WooHoo!!!
Thank GOD for the win!!! I prayed for them to do well.
It’s a new coach, a new team, and just 2 losses…this is all gonna work out well and I predict the 2009 NBA Championship!!!
(isn’t my post refreshing?) 🙂
I made the highlights from the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gwdqEvh26Y
It’s a short one even though we scored 100 points, because we shot many FT. That’s always a good sign. (started from the 2nd quarter)
Boy, wasn’t that fucking idiot behind Greg and George annoying?!
too close of a game for a crappy team (kings) missing their best player (kevin martin)
furthemore, iverson still didnt play defense
that being said, im being picky
– we get a win
– offensively iverson had a great, great game – 30 points, 9 assists (some nice ones ill admit, he also had some terrible passes tho), and 7 rebounds
– tayshaun (one of my fave players in the entire league) continues to impress… great defense, add 26 points, and 11 rebounds –> he’s been the only starter since the AI trade to play great consistently
– and despite the HORRID first quarter defensively (3rd quarter wasnt much better, giving up 27 points), we still limited them to 92 points – considering my barrometer for good defense was 90 points, not bad
– will bynum continues to impress… seriously…. i didnt expect much out of him at all this year lol
– no walter herrmann??? he’s one of my faves… disappointed in that
– arron afflalo back in the rotation?? sweeet… with rip struggling, that move shoulda been made a while ago
ya i wish there was a mute button foir the guy behind greg and george
Haha that guy behind Blaha said:
“Iverson, show some respect for the game. Tuck your jersey in!”
The guy was annoying but I was laughing. I forgot what he was saying about Chauncey but when Iverson stole the ball he made sure to look over at the guy and smile.
LOL, and AI did tuck his jersey before he got the ball.
Good,didn’t see the end of the game.
I’m so glad they won.
But do have some concerns going forward.
Next up Golden State!
I really hope Rodney is O.K.