OMG!!! I loving how M.C. is running the team. Did anyone see how pissed he was after the first quarter? He let them have it and they changed their whole game plan as a team. I loving what I'm seeing from Arron, Rod (as usual), and our regular starters; Amir has to work on fouling but I see hardly no nervousness from him at all. Our bench is great. I like what Kwame, Jason, and Dice did in this game. It's a couple things that Will B and Walter S have to work on. They look like a different team tonight. Their intensity and their competiveness brought me back to the team in '04 seriously. I really enjoyed watching this game. It gave me a feel like I haven't had in a long time when I watch them play. Arron shot has changed miraculously. Yes he is going to be a soldier. He can help a lot coming off the bench. Chauncey looks leaner and he is not playing like he's 32, more like 25. Sheed looks good and Tay was AWESOME ON DEFENSE tonight. I'm glad Joe made no trades and he just selected a new coach. DEEE-TROIT BAASKETBALLLLLLL!!!! GO PISTONS!!!!
Great to have the Pistons to watch again. And quite nice to watch a win. Defense. Amir played the first 6 minutes of the first, Milwaukee got 9 points. With Amir sitting, Milwaukee came up with 16 points in the last 6 minutes of that quarter. And we hardly scored any points either, in that last 6 minutes of the 1st quarter. Other than that 6 minute stretch though, the Pistons played excellent D. In almost all the rest of the game, we either had Amir in the game, or Afflalo doing his usual excellent job of defending. Walter Sharpe got a bit of playing time. On D and rebounding, he looks fine. Very active, and has some strength and size too. But he missed all his shots. He did make a couple of free throws. If he had not ever shot the ball tonight, I would say he had a decent game. Who knows, maybe Sharpe can knock down those shots if he gets enough reps to get comfortable out there. Hope he gets the chance. Whether he can make the shots or not, I would much rather see a decent defender out there backing up Tay, one who can move well, vs. a guy who can knock down a shot but who can not move fast enough to get to defensive plays (The other Walter, to be exact.) Jason hit some shots, drew a charge. But rebounding? Defending real tall guys like Bynum, or bothering a guy like Villanueva when he shoots an outside shot? I like Jason. I really do, but Amir is quicker and brings a lot more height to the defense. Sheed seemingly thrives, on the defensive end, with Amir along side. He was able to do his defensive job just fine, and consistently be in position to collect the bound. Kwame Brown, if nothing else, is a very active big. He moves quite well, when he does not have the ball. You give him the ball around the basket and he seems to freeze up. But hey, tonight, he seemed to get his act together some, drawing a few fouls playing under the basket. (and making a shot after sealing off his man and receiving the pass.) We shot a lot of outside shots. Probably too many. But because we were not trying to force the ball into the post quite so much like last game, we had rather few turns. Billups, Rip, Tay, and Sheed all played plenty. Billups and Rip hit plenty of shots. Herrman did not play. Samb did not play. Bynum played about 8 minutes, did not show any reason really to give him more minutes. Stuckey hit some shots, including a triple. One off the glass with his right after faking a pass. But hey, Stuck certainly was no key to us winning this one. With him in the game for some of the 1st quarter, what we got was no points for our team, and Milwaukee scoring pretty much every time. Its the other guard we have who is the difference maker. Afflalo not only played solid D to get us back in this one, he was also the offensive hero, driving in some, hitting midrange pullups, and a couple of threes to boot. 15 points. And several rebounds. Full package for him tonight. His 2nd triple put us up 11 and gave us good control of the game. Samb did not play, despite being in practice yesterday. Maybe they are just being cautious, as he did get halfway knocked out last Saturday in practice. Let me see, discounting the few minutes by Bynum here and there, we used Billups, Rip, Tay, Amir, Sheed, Stuckey, Afflalo, Sharpe, JMAX, Dyess, and Kwame. Thats 11 guys. Pretty much the eleven guys I would like to see play a lot this year, except I would like to see Samb also play some. Of course, I will be reviewing the game in depth over the next couple of days. Anyone want me to watch for anything in particular, let me know.
I'm also lovin the intensity from Curry in the preseason. Habit forming behavior. I think he'll do it in a way that won't grate on the players (like a Skiles or Laimbeer).
One thing about Sharpe, he sure isn't shy about putting up shots. Would be nice if he hit one or two. Nice board work from Sheed.
We look like we can be very deep if Amir can play his role of playing great D, rebounding, running the floor and getting 8-10 pts a game in garbage pts. If he can do that fairly conistently I can safely say that we have the best "team." I believe Afflalo and Stuckey may be next coming of yet another great guard tandem for Detroit. Go Pistons
well, i got to the game late and missed the 1st quarter. they re-did a lot of the interior to look much nicer, and the turkey and swiss sandwich was as tasty as ever. i couldn't say there were more than 10,000 fans tonight, but it was better than a typical regular season game, and had quite a few people wearing their pistons game. i think a lot of fans that go to these preseason games are very similar to us here - die-hard fans who want to see the young guys play. apparently, it was also large boobs night, because there were quite a few pairs bouncing around. there was also some D/E-list young actor (in a few movies/commercials) that i can't remember who entertained the crowd on the jumbotron. anyway, onto the game. i didn't notice much difference in chauncey, but sheed definitely looks slimmed down. kwame is very large. sharpe still looks like a young kid playing a man's game...i think his body's going to have to fill out some. i liked how on many plays we drove the middle of the lane and kicked out to the 3-point line. we shot a fair amount of open jumpers from dribble penetration, and that could be especially useful this year if stuckey can kick to chauncey in the corner, as espn's hollinger gave a stat yesterday where chauncey shoots 47+% from the wings on 3s. i have a feeling afflalo is going to earn a lot of minutes at the backup 3 spot. he looked solid all around and his shot was very smooth. amir was extremely active and made a lot of hustle plays. he'll be just fine this year, and i think he'll get a lot of easy baskets since he's always sprinting up and down the floor. but he's definitely going to have to learn how to box out and get positioning, because his athleticism can't always overcome smarter play against veterans with fewer physical gifts. he and max are so agile, they disrupt a lot of pick-and-roll since they can quickly get back to their man. speaking of max, solid as usual. kwame brown has a long, long, long, loooong way to go before he'll see more than 5 minutes a game with this team. he is clearly our worst big, incapable of making decisions when he receives the ball or the ball comes anywhere near him. his brain just seems to lock up. his D was a little too aggressive as well, getting silly fouls. i don't think he's ever learned the appropriate way to play professional basketball. as i see it, there is almost zero reason to play him. will bynum could be useful if he could use his speed to dribble penetrate, but he has such a difficult time when a player blanket-defends him that he'll almost never get the opportunity to use that. honestly we'd be screwed if he was our backup guard, and i think i'd rather see what acker can do at the PG spot at this point. the defense was simply awesome in the 2nd half, and it all started on that first possession when amir and tay created a turnover. the team really went after it, and i liked how they gambled a little more for steals and takeaways without giving up much of the standard defense. all of the young guys are constantly running and pushing and looking for easy baskets, which is sweet. it makes for exciting basketball - it felt like watching a different team last night for the first time in years.
Great Hogcap: I'll give him a pass on his poor play since it was large boob night. He may have been distracted.
