The 19-28 #Pistons are in Orlando to take on the 13-37 Magic Wednesday night. The Pistons who are 1-1 against the Magic this season have lost four of the last six games on the road in Orlando, but won the last one at the Palace with ease.
The good: Detroit, despite the loss to Miami, has been playing well as a team and individually. Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond have all put in great performances in the past three games for Detroit.
The bad: The Magic will have center Nikola Vucevic back. He missed the last meeting at the Palace. Vucevic did a number on Detroit in their first meeting this season putting up a double-double, with 20 points and 10 boards.
This battle of the underachievers (Orlando and Detroit) was supposed to be nationally televised, but considering the way both of these teams have been playing it was nixed for a different game.
The unknown: Can Andre Drummond contain Vucevic? Can Jennings keep up his feverish pace? Will Detroit glide to victory or fumble in Florida?
Injuries:
Pistons: Josh Harrellson (knee) is questionable.
Magic: Jameer Nelson – sore left knee is listed as day-to-day.
Stat: Andre Drummond recorded his first career 20-point, 20-rebound game with 21 points and a career-high 20 rebound vs.New Orleans (1/24). Drummond became the first piston with a 20-20 game since Antonio McDyess vs. New York (3/11/09).
Stat: Arron Afflalo is averaging 18.5 points against the Pistons this season.
Stat: Brandon Jennings is averaging 20.5 points against Orlando this season.
Tip off is at 7:00 pm and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Detroit . If you can’t catch the game on TV, catch it on the radio over at 97.1 The Ticket.
what Is Chauncy’s role in the team now? I don’t get see too many Pistons games but he has mostly been missing in action for a while. I don’t see him on the injured list either…
From what it seems like, he’s just on the inactive list. He’s just in the mentor/player roll right now. If he ever gets PT, it’s most likely going to be because an injury to one of our guards OR trying to shake something up with the rotation.
what if this team goes 9-2 the rest of the month? Loss at San Antonio and to Dallas. ahh.. wishful thinking, but the way they played the heat its not impossible…
Some fans don’t give up dreaming…:)
this team looks like they have checked out. There’s still some offense because it’s fun to shoot but the defense is indifferent. They got up for Miami because everyone plays hard against the defending champs, but the team really isn’t trying hard right now.
Singler in for KCP at starting SG today.
This is a shame.
oh well, another game where we make a weak opponent look like contenders.
That was embarrising.
by the way Josh Smith played a very nice game. As much hate as I give him, he shows me up, also been playing well the last month or so. Jennings though was the worst player on the team last night, dribble dribble dribble, off balance jumper, dribble dribble dribble, layup, blocked. Jennings of course does not play any defense so he was useless on both sides of the ball. He has to have his numbers so he is going to chuck it.
Watch everyone pile on Coach Mo, he’s the only guy I don’t really blame for this, the roster is a mess. When you have quality bigs you want people that can hit jump shots. Our perimeter defense is non-existent, except for KCP.
Dear Joe Dumars,
I’m sure that you are a good guy outside of basketball. But please………
DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fire Cheeks; Hire Lionel Hollins; Trade Somebody… ANYBODY (except Drummond)
BUT DO SOMETHING!!!! THIS TEAM IS A COMPLETE FAILURE, I’m sure you’re not that oblivious (or prideful) to see this ish DOESN’T WORK!!!!
Thank you,
Angry Pistons Fan.
P.S.
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER OFF lol
LR I have to ask you just one question… do you trust Joe to do the right thing? well do you? I am terrified not that we stand pat but that Joe tries to “fix” things one more time.
edt, if we stand pat, it literally doesn’t matter who comes in as GM or coach, you’re going to watch the same awful team next year. The offseason scripts itself: Stuckey is released and we lose him for nothing, we match some ludicrous offer sheet that overpays Monroe to keep him around so he can continue being mediocre and taking the team nowhere, and we have a scant ten million in cap space to fix literally the worst perimeter in the league. In other words: This is what your team is going to look like for several more years. Standing pat at this deadline is suicide.
charle & stuckey come off the books, we trade away josh smith for a bag of peanuts, yes we sign moose, but remember that drummond signs his max deal after jennings comes off the books.
We have better financial flexibility by doing nothing than most of the other teams in the league.
If we want to deal Greg monroe yes we deal him now. The question is, do you like greg monroe next to drummond better or josh smith next to drummond better.
Bynum gets benched by Cheeks after committing turnovers and sloppy play. Bynum blows up after the benching.
Not good. He has another year on his contract with the Stones.
bynum is fine. He’s probably the most level headed player we ever had out of the mutineers he is the only one that just kept his head down and played didn’t get into the coaching decisions just played and in fact had a career game with all the starters out.
He’s just venting because this team is so horrible. He’ll be ok with Coach Mo for the rest of the season.
for how bad this team is and what the expectations were to begin the year (predictions were a 3-6th seed), this team has kept it’s temper.
Now they have given up on the season there is that. So the team is in a very difficult position but I think character wise they are not another mutiny team.
I’m nostalgic. I miss the hustle of the 2004 roster. We haven’t got any specific rol, or just a way to do that job. Cheeks isn’t a bra ve person, and the Pistons need a hard way to be. I think Hollins can make a good job with his defense profile. Because you think: “Men, the Magic has scored 112 points”. We have to do something.
From the Pistons comunity of Spain.
edt, it’s not a question of who you’d rather have next to Drummond. Monroe is tradeable and valuable. Smith is underperforming on a long-term contract. You will thank the stars and praise Jesus if you can get someone just to take Smith off your hands. It’s not happening. And this team SUCKED without Smith just like it SUCKS with him, so getting rid of Smith won’t fix anything. You’re living in a dream world if you think Smith simply “going away” is going to happen or would even fix anything. It’s almost like you forgot last season or something.
Furthermore, Stuckey and Charlie coming off the books, taking into account Monroe’s cap hold, gives you $10 mil in cap space to work with. That isn’t CLOSE to enough to get this team turned around. At this point, who’s going to sign here? Your ten mil won’t go very far and neither will this team. These problems aren’t going to fix themselves.
You have two very valuable trade pieces right now in Stuckey and Monroe. Sitting at a ridiculous ten games under 500, we are in NO position to start letting someone like Stuckey walk in free agency for nothing when we could trade him to a playoff team for future assets. And with the knowledge that you CAN NOT possibly get any value for Smith, you need to suck it up and trade Monroe. Better to do it now while you have the flexibility of expiring contracts and won’t be forced to take back a big contract in return. Wait until you’ve extended him to a bigger contract than Smith’s and watch his value plummet as he gets more disgruntled and minimized. I’m just trying to spell out the obvious. Stay the course and this is the team you’re going to be looking at for 2-3 more years. This exact same team.
Otis you don’t like Greg Monroe I think he’s a great player all we need are some shooters to spread the floor. and every contract is tradable. Josh Smith makes teams worse Greg Monroe makes teams better. between Brandon and Josh there is not enough basket balls to allow Greg to shine.
the only thing we agree in is trade Stuckey now. everything else I respectfully disagree. loose the moose give him some shooters!
just my humble opinion
1) I would like Greg Monroe just fine if he wasn’t our second best center on the brink of becoming our highest paid player. Or if he had taken the steps he KNEW he had to take if he and Drummond were going to thrive together (to wit: improve his defense and add a reliable midrange jumper). Also, as a poor defender, you’d think he’d push himself to step up on offense, fight for post position, demand the ball, put the team on his back. But after four years he’s still happy to defer, no sense of urgency, no fire. If Monroe really made teams better, wouldn’t we be getting better in his four years here?
2) Is Smith tradable? Maybe. But nobody is going to give us any value for him. You’ll just take back somebody else’s bad contract, or you can go the Ben Gordon route if you’re REALLY masochistic and attach yet another future draft pick. But the bottom line is that we were the highest bidders for him this summer, and his value has gone nowhere but down. And even if you could just make a wish and be rid of him, you’re back where you were last year with the same bad record.
3) Where are these shooters going to come from? We have literally no above average shooters on the entire roster. Shooters don’t plop into your lap while you’re daydreaming about Josh Smith trade fantasies. You need to add shooters through the draft, trades and free agency. We probably won’t have a #1 draft pick coming because of that awful Ben Gordon trade, we don’t have any assets besides Monroe who can realistically be traded for plus shooting (not even Stuckey, I’m sorry to say), and ten million in cap space probably doesn’t even fetch one elite shooter, let alone three. And you’ll need three outside threats at all times to space the floor with those two lunks in the middle. By this point, I can’t see anyone in the league feeling like Detroit is the place they want to be, so God only knows how we can possibly add enough shooting to make this work while keeping all our good players.
I’m just trying to be realistic here. Drummond and Monroe have been on the roster together for almost two years now, and they haven’t demonstrated anywhere near the compatibility it would take for me to bank on them with really nothing else of value on the roster to build around. It’s kind of ironic that Joe has done almost nothing but dump shooters since drafting his second center. Daye got shipped off in Calderon trade, they made no contract offer to Calderon, Knight and Middleton got shipped off in the Jennings trade, and he paid Charlotte to take Gordon off our hands. (And his replacements for them were two rookies and a dinosaur.) Not that any of these players were particularly good, but they were all shooters.
Well, think about the moves Joe Dumars has made in the last 5 years. He drafted well yes, but has made some incredibly dumb moves, we lost Middleton and Afflalo for nothing and gained Allen Iverson, Charlie V, Ben Gordon and Josh Smith.
What is the most surprising thing about our franchise is that Joe Dumars is not the stupidest GM in the NBA. We can move Josh Smith, don’t think it can’t be done. For every brilliant move like Pau Gasol goes to the lakers Harden to the Rockets, or Toronto unloading volume chucker Rudy Gay there is a GM on the other hand being stupid.
This franchise can be fixed, we can dump Josh Smith, we can acquire shooters, we can keep Greg and Andre, and we don’t have to give up a pick.
Remember when Joe Dumars acquired Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings he could have acquired Korver and Calderon (both free agents) for a million or so less, we would have had some great shooters, and yes it’s true Calderon would be gone by the time Drummond & Monroe were in their prime but imagine the team we could have had.
I think I will be ok going into the off season losing our pick, letting stuckey walk, and giving Greg a paycheck. Joe Dumars will be gone, and we can undo Josh Smith’s contract and make it all work.
right now I don’t trust Joe to “fix” anything. I believe if we do trade Greg and Stuckey right now before the trade deadline Joe Dumars will select someone like Joe Johnson.
This team is in good shape financially and we have three solid pieces for our future, KCP Greg and Andre. Once Joe Dumars is gone this team will be ready to really do something great in the next few years.
But I don’t want any more of Joe Dumars “fixes”.
Well, you didn’t address any of my points, but that’s alright. I guess I would have liked at least one idea other than: “Step one: Trade Josh Smith (somehow), Step two: acquire good shooters (somehow), Step three: championship!” It’s just beyond the scope of any reasonable imagination how that gets accomplished.
Much more realistic to give Smith the best chance to succeed by making him a full-time power forward next to Drummond and easing his burden (aka propensity to overshoot) while creating space on the floor with shooters in a Greg Monroe/Rodney Stuckey trade. I think this attitude that we’ll wish our problems away on a falling star and catch a rainbow in our pocket is poisoning the fans and the organization itself.
Otis I am not a detail kind of guy. I understand there are people who are on trade machine and have concrete detailed ways to fix the team, that’s just not my style. Your points are certainly valid that’s why I don’t try to dispute them. My feeling I think is that I think Greg Monroe is a great player and fits perfectly with Drummond because Drummond’s defense is able to cover Monroe’s lack of foot speed and Greg’s great passing and ability to finish cover Drummond’s lack of experience. I think Josh Smith is not a good pairing for Drummond because you look at Josh with the hawks the guy jacks it up even from the power forward position.
Now I understand you want me to go explain some concrete details about this or that trade give you some real explanation other than this hazy “somehow josh smith” and “somehow shooters” but I’m awfully sorry I just don’t do that.
Nothing bores me more than watching forums fill up with post after post of trade scenarios full of detail about exactly how to fix the team.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with your analysis but I think we have different valuations for the players on this team. I think it’s also why I feel more hopeful about the future of this team even if nothing happens than you do, even if stuckey walks for nothing.
Joe Dumars gone is step one, the rest will work out ok.