Detroit Pistons vs Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday January 12 7:30 pm Local TV: FS Detroit Nat'l TV: Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket Chat is open!!!! http://www.pistonsforum.com/playoff-chat/
as soon as cv comes in the griz start rippin us and our offense just gets stagnant. alot of iso and late shot clock forces. Monroe and his cutting and flashing seemed to keep things goin
Monroe has had 4 double doubles in a row with only 3 total assists. This guy is supposed to be a wonderful passer, but he really hasn't had many games where he has racked up the assists. He's only had 3 games with more than 2 assists this year out of 35 appearances. He's had 19 games (most with significant minutes) where he had 0 assists. To put it in perfect perspective, Ben Wallace is averaging 2.4 assists per 36 minutes compared to 1.4 for Greg Monroe. Ben Wallace averages fewer turnovers per minute too. This is similar to Daye, in that it was obvious that Daye is a good shooter, but his overall efficiency isn't what it should be. Monroe is obviously a talented passer, but why isn't it resulting in assists?
No play from Rip, but Jersey played Petro, Harris, Favors, (but no Murphy) so it was business as usual for them. It was business as usual for the Pistons too, as the 3rd quarter was our undoing (again)as the Grizzlies turned a 3 pt half time deficit into an end of third qtr 9 pt lead I missed most of the third watching the President's Tucson speech, so don't know what happen or who to blame other than it appears that the Pistons had no answer for Rudy Gay or Zach Randolph. After being just a no show afterthought in the first half, Ben Gordon exploded for 25 points in the second half with most of those coming in the 4th, but it was too late as the Grizz continued to get uncontested layups even in the Pistons valiant comeback attempt. The new look starting line up did their job jumping off to a 21-7 lead in the first, but Memphis quickly adjusted to close the first qtr on a 14-5 run, so any thought of the Pistons running away with it was over within the first few minutes of the second qtr. Face it folks.....they aren't that good, no matter what lineup Q plays, because they can't play defense like the old Pistons.....and we don't have anyone who can dominate in the middle like zebo..Zach took 17 FG's and 17 FT's.. Monroe got his 4th straight double-double which is good, but tonight there was no real help from Tay or Wilcox on the offensive or defensive end.
But the turnovers are there and he takes twice as many FG attempts as Ben Wallace, so you'd think he has the ball more than Ben Wallace. I'm not hung up on it, but it a surprising stat. At this point I would have expected his rebounding and scoring to be more modest and his assists to be the attention getter. Amir Johnson's assist rate is higher. Darko's is higher. Monroe has plenty of catch and shoot teammates as well as slashers. He should have twice the assist rate of Ben Wallace, not half the rate. But again, since it is clear that he has talent in this area, this presents the true upside in Monroe's game. Just think if he would have posted 4 straight double doubles with 5 assists per game sprinkled on top of it.
The Only thing that keep me smiling this days are the 4 double-doubles from Monroe. Thank you, Mr Monroe.
Maybe it has something to do with the guys he is passing it to and their inability to do anything positive with those passes? Four double doubles in a row from a rookie who is just now getting some real time on the floor? Not bad at all, IMO. It's not HIS fault the team blows.
with monroe the ball isnt going through him more than hand offs at the top of the key to the guards. His only real touches are on his cuts to the hoop and his rebound putbacks.
I remember you saying that you haven't been seeing the games lately, so I'll answer this easily for you: Monroe is catching and finishing in the paint, and Austin is catching and shooting, there is absolutely ZERO need for either of them to rack up asts. Ben gets asts because he can't finish so he frequently passes up shots he should be taking (Monroe was doing this earlier in the season when he was having trouble finishing). Monroe is usually catching the ball in the paint,he and T-Mac seem to have a very nice chemistry together. Monroe's ability to find open spaces and create passing lanes has been VERY impressive. Nope. Just no need for him to dish. When the Pistons are playing good basketball and moving the ball the play usually ends with getting Daye a good wide open look on the weak side. Right now Daye isn't the type of player who should have the ball in his hands trying to make plays, if he can simply continue to catch and shoot, or catch-fake-dribble-shoot, he'll be doing his job on offense and helping this team.
Tayshaun Prince on John Kuester’s decision to bench Richard Hamilton for Pistons’ loss to Grizzlies: "Buffoonery. Do you all know what that means?" – PistonPowered
Nice article. I'm not sure Wilcox, as much as I like him, and Monroe deserve quite the kudos for slowing Zach. What I saw was Randolph taking some time to get going at the beginning of the game. He seems one of those players who needs some in-game motivation and I think the shot he got blocked provided that. He dominated after that and no one on the Pistons could slow him down. Right now if Prince and CV don't combine for 30 the Pistons lose. And until some guards start hitting shots other than after the game is over, or Daye perhaps figures out there are two ends to the court and he has to play on both of them, that's the way it's going to stay.
"But Detroit can’t build again on top of a crumbling foundation. These steps are necessary for the franchise". Yup. In order to rebuild you need to first clear the rubble. "Did John Kuester lose the team, or did he just lose Prince and Hamilton? I suspect it’s the latter, which shows how fragmented this team is. I don’t want them banding together against Kuester, but it’s nearly impossible to believe they could come together for anything". Just go already. Just go. Do anyone see a common pattern here over the years? Buffoonery....look in the mirror, clown. Don't do a Brett Favre on us guys. I'd like to remember the 2004 team in a positive way. Leave now. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 million dollars. Go directly to Jersey or Denver or wherever. Just take your circus act out of town. I'm tired of your Crying Game crap Rip. I'm tired of your Sniper crap Tay...and I haven't followed the friggin' team in years!!! Pack both of your Testacles in Tayshaun's luggage and get the hell outta Dodge.
Rodney Stuckey fans might want to skip this one. I don't know what this guy has done to be cemented into the rotation. I would never play him at the point again. He is horrible. This exact team would improve ten-fold just by removing him from the equation. The Pistons were mounting a modest comeback behind Ben Gordon's back from the dead hot shooting. He had knocked down 4 or so difficult shots in a row to cut the Grizzlies lead to 6 with about 7 minutes to go. Continuing to score with the quick strike long ball fashion that Gordon was utilizing would have kept the pressure on Memphis. Unfortunately for Gordon there was only one player on the court that could slow him down. His name is Rodney "Silver Spoon" Stuckey. Rodney Stuckey had just checked into the game as the PG. He had not scored a point in the 2nd half and instead of simply feeding Gordon the ball continually until he cooled off he decided to look for his own shot so he could take some of his patented Triple Lundy forays to the hoop. (He even scored on a couple of them and his 4 points gave him one of his best 4th quarters of the season.) This is what I was talking about yesterday in the Bulls thread. Standing there and passing the ball to Gordon at that point in time is PG 101. It is neither difficult nor complex. He was not being asked to create offense for a group of cold shooters. T-Mac has led the L in scoring and he will (and did when he came back into the game) not even think about shooting in these instances so he can get guys shots. That is not the case for Stuckey and his 15-16 PPG self. He comes first. I am not saying the Pistons would have won this game. There is also no guarantee that Gordon would have stayed hot even though he remained so when T-Mac came back in to start getting him the ball again. Gordon turned the ball over the next few times he actually got the ball (probably because he never knew if the ball would ever come back to him if he didn’t force something). Stuckey was given a plate full of gold and used turned it to crap. Call me a hater if you will, but that is what I saw. It is ridiculous.
