Yes, but mostly NO!
An early 5:30 tip and a delayed flight left me unable to watch the Pistons win over the Grizzles until this evening. So what does a person take away from a game they didn’t get to see yet? A lot!
From what most of your commenting, news reports and the box score it took just about all the Pistons had to beat the lowly Grizzles. Yes they snapped the longest losing streak since the team acquired Rasheed Wallace, but that doesn’t make many of us feel any better.
- The three guard lineup still isn’t working. It’s almost tiring to keep saying it.
- Tayshaun isn’t productive when he plays out of position.
- Antonio McDyess is doing whatever he can to put us in the win column. Sixteen boards yesterday says it all.
- Rasheed can be invisible in stretches. He’s shooting too many threes, something that Pistons fans have been complaining about since 2005. Yes he looks tired, maybe it has something to do with the fact he’s got NO defensive help when he’s on the court.
- We are struggling on the defensive end and two of our best players in that department, Arron Afflao and Jason Maxiell, spend most of their time watching the game from the bench.
- Rip plays one of his best games all season scoring 14 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Yes it’s great but is Rip happy taking a back seat on the team this year after being Detroit’s leading scorer for so long?
- Outrebounded consistently.
- Muscled in the paint on both ends of the floor.
- Losing to teams we should steamroll, and when we do win….it’s by the hair of our chinny, chin chin.
We can moan and complain, vent and verbalize our frustrations, try to keep sane and give our “dream lineups” that we think will change things for our beloved Pistons. At the end of the day this thing is in the hands of Dumars, Curry and the players.
Panic in Detroit? I would say yes, but things could be worse. Oh no maybe they can’t …..the Cavs are in first place.
Is Rip really headed to the bench? A. Sherrod Blakely says so.
Detroit Pistons coach Michael Curry hasn’t decided when he will make a lineup change.
But if a change is made — and there’s a very good chance of that happening — it will likely involve Richard Hamilton coming off the bench and Amir Johnson being re-inserted into the starting lineup.
Hamilton appears more concerned with the team’s success, regardless of what role he plays in it.
“We just want to win, bottom line. We want to win games,” Hamilton said. “Guys are coming out, trying to figure out a way to do everything possible to help the team win. That’s the most important thing right now — just try to win games.”
Curry said he and his staff will have conversations regarding the past 20 games which, not surprisingly, will include discussions about what changes, if any, will be made to the starting lineup.
“That’s the number one thing,” Curry said. “I haven’t hid from that, not one time.”
While Curry wouldn’t say that a change was definitely going to be made, he did say whatever decision that’s made will be “what’s going to be the best way to play for us to compete and be an elite team. Once we make that decision, we’ll kind of stick with that for the rest of the way.”
We will see, but I do know one thing, a picture can really tell a story.
Photo/Getty Images
Why does every one love jason So much. Hes played like crap pretty much all season long. Yesterday he played alright, and he was -5 when he was on the floor to menphis, meaning he was still effecting our flow. Trade Jason while he still has some value to other teams.
are you serious?! Jason is a great player! I really like the way that he plays every night!
Jason is our best bench player, since stuckey is a starter..
I think Iverson should come off the bench, and end games. Hamilton should be in the line-up and there should be a toss-up between Amir and Kwame, depending on the teams we are playing. And just as McDyess should be closing games.
Iverson and McDyess need to be in the game at the same time since he runs down the court and could be a great finisher on the fast break.
ai is gonna start
rip is gonna come off the bench
I’m so f****** tired of the egos I want to puke. AI whining about how much he’s sacrificing already? Do you want to win or not? I don’t give a sh*t how used to starting people are, the respect they’ve earned, blah blah blah. Ask Charles Barkley how many championships respect gets you.
At this point I don’t care if AI or Rip comes off the bench. I’d prefer to see AI torching the Jose Bareas of the league, but I just want a change. Maybe Curry’s a mad genius and he wants the message of failure to sink in for Rip and AI. “We start both of you, we lose. Do you like losing? No? Then one of you has to come off the bench”.
But I doubt it. Anybody who dresses like he does probably isn’t a genius at anything. I’m sick of talking about this. Wake me up when he grows a pair and introduces a lineup that will work.
One last thing. I’m sick of seeing Rasheed have to guard two guys in the paint. We’ve seen how he can lock down almost any big in the lane, but Tayshaun’s not big enough for the four. His guy gets around him, Sheed has to cover, someone’s open, bam. And having Tay bang with guys who outweigh him by 30 pounds for 40 minutes a night is going to ruin him for the playoffs. Sheed and Dice can’t rebound alone, not when they’re the only bigs out there.
Speaking of which, I’m sick of seeing McDyess kill himself out there with no one backing him up in terms of effort. Loyalty and heart like his come along once in a generation, and I’m tired of it being wasted. I’m tired.
you know im lookin at it now from daniels perspective and maybe that is why rasheed is shootin so many 3s is because he is so tired from trying his hardest on defense or is just fed up with the way the lineup is and doesnt wanna get in the post and try to do work on those bigs… give rasheed some help and get a true big man get rid of rip and try and get boozer that would help him out and open up more shots for rasheed and prince
We need more of Affalo, Maxiell and Brown
Does not really matter who’s coming off the bench but that small line up is not working.
someone needs to talk to rasheed and make it clear that he must concentrate on getting the bulk of his point from inside and no longer three
defense is our trademark and we need to focus to get this back and get to charity line
Detroit is not getting enough point from the fool line
defense will create offense
i strongly believe that Detroit is not done yet but someone needs to step up and make the necessary changes. line up, attitude, focus, we are not far away from the other contenders but another losing streak will cost us.
Thanks Natalie for your tremendous job.
What is wrong with alternating RIP and AI in the starting lineup? Why has this not been brought up? One night AI starts with Stuckey, the next game RIP starts. C’mon this isnt exactly rocket science (even though they get paid like a rocket scientist)
I’m not sure there is an actually rocket scientist or just engineers. lol
not only would that screw up chemistry. But there would be no consistency. Guys would have to play different every game. They need to develop a rhythm in order to get some success. Once the move is made whether I agree with it or not Curry just has to stick it out for the remainder of the year.
Too many fans want these players to be great at all times. Max is a defensive minded guy, hes not going to stop everyone everytime, hes not going to make every shot nor will he rebound every ball. But the dude is valuable to the team and plays hard all the time. Am I the only one who thinks Stuckey should be sent back to the bench? Don’t let a 38 and 40 point game cloud your thoughts on this. He hasn’t proven to me that he can direct the team on the court. Yeah, he can score play d, and set guys up. But the dude isn’t a leader yet, he’s still trying to mold his identity. With Rip and AI, we know what we get and they can get it done. Stuckey is good for 20 minutes a game off the bench, no more than that. He’ll start next year, because if this doesn’t work, you will all say that Stuck should have been benched.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090120/SPORTS0102/901200411
curry= dummy
But at least he manned up and made a decision. Even if I don’t agree with it
But I think Dyess will play better with Rip than with AI. But then again, most players play better with Rip than AI.
On the bright side
DING DONG SMALL BALL’S GONE.
Hey Nat.
You’re not the only one. But you act like its some tragedy that the Cavs are ahead of us.
They actually have a really, realllly good team. probably best in the East. And we’re not really contenders at this point in time.
rip needs to go. we need a better center to put sheed back in PF.
I hate to see Rasheed frown like that.. (in that pic where it says a picture can tell a story or something like that) It makes me think hes not happy in Detroit.. i hope we dont get rid of him.. He is the spiritual leader of this team.. theres no way that Tyson chandler (the guy that is the leading candidate for the trade) will bring the kind of energy sheed does…. ugh
hey MAX-AHOLIC, I agree with you. Stuckey is a great player, but rip shouldn’t be a bench player. stuckey played well since he is a starter but as you said before, he is still not ready. and if we traded AI for chaucney, I think that the lineup should stay like it was before, just put AI as a point guard instad of chauncey, and that all.