I agree. Rip has been the most turnover prone Piston in the playoffs by a wide margin. He shouldn't be handling the ball or trying to score by himself. He shold just stick to what he's great at - shooting the midrange jumper coming off the screens.
I don't feel bad for Arvis at all! It's not like Flip hasn't given him a chance. More than ANY player on the team, Arvis has been spoon-fed minutes all year long. Flip should have benched Hayes way back in mid-December!
I agree. Suck it up Arvis and quit complaining. You (for some reason) were the beneficiary of many unearned minutes during the season. The chickens....have come home....to roost!
I think he is more then warrented in his complaints.... his complaints arn't about playing time but in the lack of communication from flip to him. Flip needs to say sorry but your lack of defense in this matchup makes you more a liabilty then we want to take. Do I feel bad he's not playing, nope not one bit.... he has looked even worse in his brief time in the playoffs then he did in the regular season, and its the right place for him to be.. on the bench..... BUT, Flip needs to let the players know what the game plan is and what there going to be doing in general terms... In some series were going to need his gun slinging off the bench, just this series he was not needed for 1 sec. thats what a bench is for to fill in a missing link in the playoffs, and it changes from series to series.
In other words, Flip needs to respect Jarvis as a man even though he's not respecting him as a player. By avoiding conflict through lack of communication, it only creates bad feelings.
I concur with some of the statements about Rip as well. Two games ago Stuckey got yanked because the team was struggling without Chauncey. Nevertheless, it was because Tay and Rip kept demanding the ball and trying to break their man off the dribble. Not only does it not work, it looks ridiculous. Like at the end of the half last game with Rip getting the O-foul. He clearly has no move and had to use is off arm to push off the defender. So blatant. Come on Rip understand your game.
Every once in a while Rip gets through traffic and finishes nicely at the rim in the half court set. Those are what keep him coming back for more.
yeah i read that too - awesome. i hardly watched the game, they were way up early and the outcome was never in doubt.
Flip seems to take this send-some-guys-to-the-scorer's-table-and then-call-them-back thing to an art form. Maybe it's how he keeps the bench players warm. P.S. Great game!
That's essentially what i feel bad about. Not that he's not playing b/c AA has LONG deserved those min, but the fact that he seems to be in the dark, and there's no communication. It's been a similar thing said by many players during the Flip era, notably Ben Wallace, his inabilty to relate/communicate. I agree with this post completely.
