Andre really needs to start. Not sure why Frank seems so averse to playing him alongside Monroe. I want to see a better 3-point shooting starting lineup too; teams are just going to clog the lane every time down because Brandon's our only reliable long range shooter. Kim and Khris' long range shooting ability seems to have helped the second unit a lot, and having Andre in the middle to scare off some guards is huge. Excellent game for the young man btw, 19 and 10! I had to stare at it a minute before I believed it; he even made a FT. (yes I know its preseason, but still better than anything Max/CV managed). Also - JJ as starting PF last year didn't work our so well; Frank should know this, has tape on it - why waste time looking at it again? Guy is a 3 I tell you.
I agree, I would like to see andre start as well as middleton at the 3, but we all know Lawrence wont be so bold. We'll get the J Max center starting unit again along with our isotays and the opposing teams just sitting back and swatting our crap.
Drummond was awesome tonight - a bunch of ridiculous put-backs, a nice little up and under as he fell out of bounds... and rebounded well. He's not a guy that can go get his own shot, which is why he isn't playing with Monroe, because then you only have three guys that can shoot on the floor. If Drummond can develop a decent mid-range shot, he'll be unstoppable. If Monroe wasn't there, I'd say start him, but their offensive games are opportunistic and won't complement each other all that well.
Yeah I get your point, but if Greg can hit the midrange J a little more consistently it won't be as much of a problem imo. Greg's issue right now is he's forcing his drives to the hoop too much precisely because he doesn't seem to trust the jumper he's apparently worked on all summer, and he's either bricking bunnies or getting stripped inside. I just want them to try the Monroe/Drummond combo rather than go back to the same old lineups of JJ/Max at PF (and BOT! ugh) at least in preseason if they think Andre's not ready. They have not played 1 minute together iirc.
Able to stay awake a couple more hours today. Bad news though, my family has caught what I got. (I am guessing a 48 hour flu bug, as my symptons came on like a ton Wednesday evening and then started subsiding by Friday night.) Thanks again for the writeups. My impression is we got a bit more size up front now. Still got CG around, something Dumars needs to address sooner, not later. Find a home for Bynum too. And yes, Drummond should be starting along side Monroe. Probably going to have to play whoever is our best outside threat at the 2 to make that happen, and it of course is not Stuckey, who can then be a fine backup point. Williams I am guessing should be playing for us on our second unit for his defense. About all I can think of for the moment, time to go back to bed. Well, ok, maybe one rotation first. Start Knight, (best outside shooting shooting guard), Tay (who can shoot well especially if not overplayed), Monroe, Drummond. 2nd unit: Stuckey, Williams, Daye, JMAX, (The Ukrainian guy some with Monroe or Drummond both playing some with the 2nd unit.)
Yup, I've seen enough. Drummond is a starter on this team purely in terms of expected immediate value.
First of all, it was a blessing watching a Piston game without Prince. To bad the starting lineup played horrible today, the only one who gets a pass is JJ. I like him alot better than Max as the starting 4. When he was replaced by Chaz to start the 3rd the team completely collapsed. GM should never ever play together with Chaz, even Daye could average 20 points against that duo. That would be solved by never playing Chaz. Drummond! I'm drinking the kool-aid. You can see he's raw but he's alot less raw than I expected. It would be a disgrace if he doesn't get 20 MPG from the start of the season. The other fellas in the second unit also looked good. Kens shooting will help that unit and Middleton was a positive surprise. I like T-Broke over Bynum. He's probably the best passer on this team.
That little move at about 3:20 was sweet. Also gotta love the block-and-dunk (which I missed, switching back and forth between the Pistons and Tigers). He is playing much better than I thought he would be. I'm very happy with his showing so far.
I've seen enough. Start Andre together with Greg, and keep him on the floor until he fouls out. Max/Slava as the back-ups.
This rotation is intriguing, but I worry that Monroe and Drummond will tire out playing 4 on 5 with the starters and then running with the 2nd unit also. Maybe they won't have to run that much with all the great shooting going on?
"project" is really not an appropriate term for this guy. He has good touch, good hands, and he has court awareness. We got a steal. Looks like Monroe and Drummond are going to be getting a million tip ins on the offensive glass. Neither of them will have any desire to wander and they both appear to be gifted finishers with the tap ins.
