With the Allen Iverson news still fresh, the Pistons are in Philadelphia to play an early matinee with the Sixers today. The Pistons have dropped eight of 11 to fall into seventh place, a half-game ahead of Chicago.
All remaining games are important for Detroit, especially the game against the Bobcats tomorrow night at the Palace, so a victory in Philly would do wonders for this team right now. The Sixers (39-35) are close to clinching a spot in the postseason, but they’re still battling for position. Detroit should take advantage of the fact that the Sixers young star Thaddeus Young (ankle) won’t play in Saturday’s game.
Rodney knows what’s at stake.
“We have seven games left and hopefully, we can do it,” second-year guard Rodney Stuckey said after the loss to the Nets. “I really don’t know how to explain this. We just have to find ourselves. Either we want to go to the playoffs or we want to go home.” Via NBA.com
Tip off is at 3:00 PM and will be Nationally televised on ESPN. If you can’t catch the game on television you can listen live locally on WDFN 1130 AM or follow the game at NBA.com.
Philly has a better record than us. Just take my heart out and stomp on it. Oh well, Detroit is playing well right now. Kwame Brown is being productive and Bynum is doing amazing. I still prefer seeing Rip. I’d rather watch Rip the rest of the season and lose, than have to see Poison Ivy. Joe better have an actual deal in mind because he has really messed everything up. Yes, I am still blaming him, and only him.
Who keeps brainwashing Detroit? They actually believe they’ll be a threat and have a chance at beating someone in the playoffs? Either they’re brainwashed or sadly delusional. Poor men.
The best part is that the guy who was responsible for 12 point lead for us didn’t play at all in the second half.
Another loss 🙁
We choked in the fourth! 🙁
just ignore those season games. I still feel we might have a chance at round 2.
Omg, what the hell is wrong with us? We just couldnt make those open jump shots!
I miss the old times where we used to beat the crap outta mediocre teams such as Philly!
If you saw the game, you could tell that Detroit, doesn’t run plays, and the ball movement is poor, and this is key, without Allen Iverson. (Poison Ivy lol)
The chickens are coming home to roost for Detroit. Firing Rick Carlisle, Flip Saunders and Larry Brown. All 3 were great coaches, and gave 50 win seasons. Yet we fired them because we kept losing. We fired Larry Brown after leading us to the Finals.
This is karma. Simply Karma. Boston kept Doc Rivers after an 18-win season, the next year they won a championship.
In the end people are gonna blame A.I. he’s an easy target. I mean he divided the team, he forced Hamilton to the bench, he helped them to the longest winning streak of the season.
Don’t blame it on the lackluster defense and offense set up by Mr. Curry, or the arrogance of Joe Dumars for his biggest signing of the offseason being Kwame Brown (who is playing well, but we can do better.)
Oh well, let me say this; Detroit is about to go through some dark times. There style of play is dead and they need a superstar. Hamilton is a great player but no superstar, and the fact that Curry is playing like he is one is the reason why Detroit is ending the season so badly. Detroit is too small, too stagnant on offense, and doesn’t play quick enough to utilize the talents of its player.
The beginning of the Teal Era 2.0
I’m afraid that this is just the beginning.
To bad really…
Everything has it’s season.
Better luck next year!
Everyone have a great weekend!
To bad really..
Better luck next year!
All have a great weekend!
OOOPSIE,sorry about that guys old computer acting
a little wonkie sort of like our beloved team!lol
Thought my first post didn’t go through.
Anyways have a GREAT EVENING!
Pistons need more than 15 points from Rip.
Just to be clear: Larry Brown wanted to leave! Dumars didnt actually fire him.
I <3 the no iverson sign. it all comes down to this, ladies and gentlemen. i hope we make the playoffs. at this rate, the 7 and 8 will be chicago and the bobcats… unless toronto keeps winning.
hopefully we make the playoffs and stop playing possum. that’s my best explanation for such a talented bunch of dudes. how bad ass would that be to beat cleveland first round after they dominated so hard, lol.
Good, they’re playing their best ball at the end of the season and they have a ton of momentum going into the playoffs.
^^Okay people, do you see how stupid that looks when you read that. Now please stop talking about this team like they’ll win more than 1 to 2 games in the playoffs if they even get in. THEY SUCK!!!!
boooooo piston ai good out piston
At this point I think it would be best in the long run if we missed the playoffs. We’d get a higher draft pick, which would just be another advantage going into the offseason. I mean, who’re we fooling? These Pistons aren’t going to intimidate anyone in the playoffs, and I don’t buy the whole Detroit having Orlando’s number thing. The Magic would dominate us in a seven-game series. Imagine the Pistons landing Demar DeRozan in the draft, signing Paul Millsap/Carlos Boozer/David Lee and possibly making a significant trade as well.
now what, piston fans team keep loosing, without ai. how ai will help this team joe d. limited ai to shoots 24%,, only and michael currys stupidity,,the whole game very slow. ai.. will be back next year he will rise again,,mark my word go ai booooo piston out of play offs i wish i could rufund my seasons ticket, and nba league pass stupid michael curry bench ai now what,,,,
wtf are you talking about rey? you sound retarded. are you in fact retarded?
(1) It’s unfair to judge Pistons’ success based on one single season performance due to the fact there is no NBA team would stay on the top forever in it’s team history: for example, Cavs are the hot team right now, but this is the first time in their team history to reach 60 plus wins during the regular season. Boston was down for a few seasons before its management team decides to do the big trades before they reach to the top of the East. What I am saying is people should focus on how the team responses right after its down period (s) instead of complaining the team bad performances during the particular season.
(2) The “Iverson Experiment” shows superstar doesn’t fit in Detroit Basketball: That’s why I am afraid the result might be the same as the Iverson’s case when people are talking about the possibility of landing Chris Bosh or other similar players in the future summer times. Please remember that all superstars want the ball on their hands as much as possible during any given games, but that is not how the Detroit basketball plays out at same time. In fact, what makes the Pistons basketball so special during the past 6 years was they have the group guys who were willing to pay as the one unit in order to compete with any team during the seasons. At this moment, I think all pistons need is a quality player who is willing to work with the team as a one unit instead of focusing one player who is looking to take his own shots in the games. Moreover, for the “insurance issue”, it’s better to have a group of players who can score double digit or nearly double digit points per game individually instead of having one or two players who can score lots of points due to its impossible to say that all players will stay healthy for the full season.
(3) Rodney Stuckey’s fast growing let people forgot how good and important the Chauncey Billups was: I just think Pistons are just too excited to have Stuckey in their organization because everyone knows Joe Dumars was in hurry looking for the backup point guard for Chauncey and all the sudden or maybe you can say fortunately he finds one who was not only the right one who he has been looking for, but also this player was performing really well as the rookie during last year playoff. However, it’s clearly to say that Stuckey will need to spend at least 3 to 5 years before he becomes the possible next Billups for the Pistons. At this moment, Pistons need the new team leadership and I hope Rip can take full responsibility for that role.
Everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong this season. Starting with the trade that started the avalenche… I still have faith in Joe D, the near future will show us the real face of this trade. Nobody can be on top forever. But we have to stay true Piston fans and support our team no matter what.
@rey
omg, thank you so much. Your comment made my day. I had to laugh for about a minute. Seriously, that was hilarious 😀
sad to see how pistons play right now. i wonder where all the dumb kind of pistons fans are right now because we lost despite of a.i. leaving the team.
but i remember maaaany many quotes everywhere that it’s all a.I.’s mistake… jeah.
coach curry made an all-star who made 26 ppg last year to a player you never expected to be from iverson. and it’s a shame nobody pointed at curry… at least dumars should have realized what’s going on in mo-town.
bullshit… everythings bullshit right now. and no. it’s not a.i.’s fault… we the organisation made a mistake putting a team together that can’t work together as a unit.
If we even make it to playoffs the truth is we can’t make it to the second round. Cleveland, Boston, Orlando… But we have to fight to give em’ hell of a hard time. That would be true Pistons basketball. And then next season rebuilding starts. That was the plan Joe D., right?
I agree with Anne. This team doesn’t really need a super star player. Although some super stars can be pretty good team players. (Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, guys like that)
I’d say the biggest concern for this team in the off season would be to get a stable power forward and center. They’ve been somewhat lacking in the area really since Big Ben left. They need to dominate in the paint again and then guys like Stuck and Rip and other guards could really give you that balanced attack that you need to have a successful team.
So there you go Joe D. You’ve got a crap load of money this off season. Do what needs to be done and hopefully we’re watching a better team next year.
Oh yeah, use some of that money to buy out MC and get a real coach too. How does a team go from 2nd seed to almost out of the playoffs the next season. The trade had a lot to do with it but MC is guilty as charged if you ask me.
god dammit pistons…
Curry: Iverson, Pistons ‘Didn’t Work’
Apr 05, 2009 5:31 AM EST
Are Allen Iverson’s days in Detroit over?
According to the Detroit News, Pistons coach Michael Curry spoke on Saturday as though Iverson’s tenture with the team is now over, talking about how both parties tried to make things work but it just did not happen.
“It just didn’t work; it didn’t blend well,” Curry said before Saturday’s 95-90 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. “There was a lot to do with guys changing roles and accepting different roles you have to play. It’s unfortunate things didn’t go as we thought they would.”
Curry thinks Iverson, 33, still can be a force in the league.
“He’s still a starter in this league; he’s going to have a lot of success,” Curry said. “This was a tough situation this year. As he gets older, he’ll have to do different thing so his body can hold up for the rigors of an NBA season. He’ll probably have to adapt a little bit, because I’m not sure how many teams will be centered just around him, but he’s still a very capable player, and at times this year, he was really, really good for us.
“A lot of things maybe I could have done better, and the players could have done better, and maybe he could have done better. All of us, we haven’t gotten it done this year. By no means do I want to make it seem it was just on Allen.
“The reality is we’re in the position we’re in, and we have to make the most of.”
We can’t play the same system we did in the past cause we don’t have the same kind of personnel.
Pistons basketball this, Pistons basketball that, Larry Brown’s system that won a championship in 2004 is over, in fact as soon as Ben Wallace left it started to decline.
We have no shooters on our team. Our starters play way too many minutes. Our bench can’t score and is way too small. No one on our team posts up or dominates in the paint. So no we need a new system, or a whole bunch of new players.
Also we have a starting PG who can’t shoot. In the Pistons old system, James, Hunter, Billups could all shoot and play D. We had bruisers(Williamson) , 3-pt shooters (a whole bunch), and Rasheed played much more in the post than he does now.
So please, stop all this Detroit basketball system, we have no system. We have players who understand the value of defense, however if you watched the game and saw how Iguodola destroyed our defense, you could tell our defense is on the decline too.
Dude, we still have one of the best defenses in the league. Its true that yesterday Iguodala had it way too easy, but you also cant downplay his offensive abilities.
The biggest problem is the lack of offensive plays. All we do is stand around and watch one player do something. Especially during crunch time. No ball movement and no moving without the ball whatsoever. And what pisses me off the most that we hold the ball waaaaay toooo long. Especially Tay, Stuck and Will.
I gotta agree with Curryaintshit regarding the lack of shooters on our team. We have some guys who can go the basket (Stuckey, Bynum), but we need more consistent shooters. And they don’t really have to be 3 point shooters. BUt when the opposing team plays zone, we tend to have more problems cause we cant hit those open jump shots on a consistent basis.
I hope they dont make playoffs and get a lotto pick.. u have all this cap money and have a lotto pick? dumars if he is really all that like most of you claim he is “i still think hes garbage”.. maybe this team will turn around.
Gotta say this to all the people who think that now going for a low spot to get a high pick in the draft.
There are several reasons why this is a completely retarded idea:
1. Its too late. And we still have a chance to climb up the standings.
2. We are a playoff team. No team wants to play us in the playoffs.
3. Playoff experience for young guys such as Stuckey or Will is far more valuable than a draft pick at number 16 or sth.
4. This year’s draft class sucks ass. Other than Blake Griffin there’d be nothing out there for us (or any other team).
5. I wanna see how we pull of an upset against the likes of Cleveland, Boston or Orlando. That would just too sweet.
That’s a lot of wishful thinking on your part, Pat. The truth is we’re not winning a championship with this roster, and chances are we’re not even making it out of the first round. Too many dysfunctions. There’s a better chance of landing a pick in the 10 to 15 range than beating a team like the Cavs, Magic or Celtics. And while this draft class doesn’t have a glut of potential superstars, it does have some serviceable players outside of Griffin and Thabeet. Namely Demar DeRozan, DeJuan Blair, Earl Clark, Terrence Williams and Craig Brackins. On top of that, we could definitely afford to get younger and more athletic.
I still think that the playoff experience for Stuckey, Will, Afflalo or Hermann is far more valuable than taking a shot at a mediocre – weak draft pick.
Alright I admit that we will hardly have a chance against Cleveland or Boston, but we definitely have a good chance against Orlando. It won’t be easy, but Im very confident that we can beat them in a 7-game series. And I really don’t see Atlanta, Miami, Philly or Chicago ahead of us. Clearly not.
But even if we get to play against Cleveland or Boston, I still think that playoff experience is essential for the development of young players. Especially since they now play a bigger role.
First, I have too give a second +1 to Anne’s comments on the Iverson “experiment,” Stuckey’s need to develop and other points.
I was at the game yesterday, and it was a weird experience, since I bought the tickets at a time where I envisioned the Pistons coming into Philly with Iverson with a lot of pre-playoffs swagger. Not the case.
Even when the Pistons were ahead in the first half, you sensed that their ball movement was stifled and they were settling for unfavorable jump-shots. It works when the shots are falling, but when the shots start bouncing out and there is no energy on the defensive end, things fall apart. Stucky definitely needs time to develop, especially with his decision making. Too many turnovers. Sheed was all taped up, but I still don’t know why he doesn’t take it to the basket more. Good things happen when Sheed goes inside, especially when he can take these guys! He seemed especially beat up and lazy, although I liked the little bit of anger when he missed that dunk. At least he came alive!
I hope Tayshun is OK. He was on the floor for a long time, and they appeared to be examining his shoulder after his collision with Theo Ratliff toward the end of the game. He looked like he was majorly suffering after that, almost hunched over in pain, but MC kept him in for the duration.
I actually have to disagree with ya Pat. There’s no such thing as “playoff expierence”, if your a good nba player you play every game like its the playoffs, and all our young players will have played 82 games by the end of the season, so theres no need to move down a few draft spaces just so they can play 4 more(we will get swept if we’re playin boston or cleveland, orlando will take us in 5). Plus if some miracle does happen and we get to play orlando and we win them, we are not going to get past boston or cleveland, PERIOD. Curry is an f’in idiot and we dont have enough talent to make up for it this year. Even more so, if we dont make the playoffs maybe, just maybe, joe d will open his eyes and see just how poor a job Curry has done this year
and there are actually a good amount of talented players in the top 15 this year
As of today, there are sixteen teams with better records than the Pistons, giving them the 14th pick in the 1st round. Some years, that would be a really valuable pick, but I suspect they’re just hoping to get a roleplayer with this draft class. It’s helpful, but it won’t produce a vastly different team, especially with the probable losses to the roster in the upcoming offseason.
Of course, it is possible to solve some of the three-point shooting woes of the Piston’s even if they can’t land a low post scoring option and a quality big man/rebounder. With three second round picks–Wolves would provide the 5th or 6th pick of the 2nd, Raptors the 9th pick of the 2nd, and the Piston’s own the 14th pick of the 2nd as of today’s standings–it *is* possible they could make a move up in the draft with a trade or simply gamble on some prospects that work out.
They have the rights to Trent Plaisted, who would have undoubtedly gone much higher than 46th in this year’s draft with solid (albeit not spectacular) numbers at Brigham Young–15.6 PPG, over 54 FG%, and 7.7 RPG in 27 MPG. Yeah, I’m not banking on Plaisted becoming the next anchor of a new Bad Boys teams, but drafting can be a real gamble. Laimbeer only averaged 7.3 points and 6.0 rebounds at Notre Dame.
I’m not writing off the Piston’s this season, even if their chance of taking home a championship is being dismissed (even their chance of staying in the playoff race), but I’m also a fan–and that means I’m looking forward to the draft, to offseason aquisitions, and another season of Detroit Basketball.
@ Shawn
There’s no way that you can compare the Regular Season with the Playoffs. Players who haven’t been in any big tournaments are very likely to struggle for the first time in the playoffs. I mean the pressure in the playoffs and in the regular season is just completely different. Ask any professional in the league: experience is a big key. It can give you the mental edge over young, inexperienced teams. That’s what made us and teams like San Antonio so dangerous once the postseason started.
I admit that there are some solid players beside Griffin and Thabeet, but, to me, it’s not worth going down some notches to get a better draft pick.
The season was horrible so far, but we just have to make the best out of it. Try to make a run, maybe get some momentum and pull off some wins during the playoffs. That’s all we can do now.
I would agree that playoff experience is important to young players, but Stuckey and Afflalo managed plenty of that last year, when we actually went deep into the playoffs. This year is different. There’s very little to be learned in a beatdown series at the hands of one of the top seeds. Experience is important, but I think ultimately getting players is what constitutes improvement.
HAHA MC said they played well 4th quater just didnt finish well HAHA
we missed 8 straight shots in a row and just had out typical HOPELESS post-flip offense, seriously, can u ppl name one game where we ran decent offense? goddamn MC doesnt know how to run ANY plays, this is pathetic, its so cold in the D…
urgh it makes me cry and cringe everytime i see us barely gettin over 80 points a game with our ugly ball ‘dont know what the fuck im doing’ offense and then watch denver rack up 120 point games and winning and holding 2nd spot in the west
i mean its k to have a san Antonio style ugly ball game where offense is coherent and well thought, this pistons ugly ball just reminds me of middle school game
Typical D fan response: “Yeah, we lost because of AI and MC” Can anyone come up with a better more in-depth response?
^^^ I totally agree…to the fullest degree.
Nat,
You need to put that x sign over sheed’s dumba$$ face as well