Darko will lose his spot in the rotation to Dale Davis in short order if he keeps playing this way.

Yep, Flip puts him in and Flip is rewarded with a sad sack performance. Maybe Larry was right all along.

Valuable experience? Darko is only getting valuable experience if he chooses to be a brick layer when he grows up.

I'm with Flip. Let Darko earn his time by doing well in garbage time. He doesn't deserve to be in there right now if tonights performance is any indication of what we can expect from him.

Darko needs to show me something before I complain any more about his lack of playing time. He had his chance.

That Cleveland game from a couple of years ago was quite something for Rip. He was on fire from the field and from the line -- he even hit his lone trey attempt -- and tossed in 7 boards and 5 dimes.

Here's the boxscore

Good point, my friend.

GO RIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even Amir Johnson would have done better.

This was the LB game. The Pistons knew from the get go they would get the W. So, no defense in the first half. Turn it on in the third and when the blow out is there, ease off out of respect for Larry. The starters respected Larry tonight. And I am very proud of them. I had problems with Larry's offense but I am proud that he was a Piston coach. Seeing everyone together was like watching a surreal movie scene. Tay and Rip were awesome and need to be kept fresh. Are you there Joe? Please keep them fresh. Sheed does many little things and we didn't need more tonight. Ok, Lee and others, Arroyo made some nice plays and he made some bonehead plays. I thought he looked good at times, LA Sam. But he is liable for a turnover at any time. Can we afford this in a big game? Still, not bad. Darko was bad. Have to call it like it is. Yes, he needs the experience but he is definitely not ready for playoff prime time. Evans showed some spark with the tip and I like the fact he can hit a three. Lee, he was not as bad as you painted him in your summary. No, he is not a ball handler but he can be plugged in to do certain things. He is a role player. The unit as a whole was bad. Maybe they are not a good match. Overall, the first team can really move the ball on offense--that third quarter was a quarter we rarely had last year. This is a good sign Piston fans and so is our record.

Nope, not new at all.

I guess I'm still holding out hope that Darko will roll out of bed one day soon and a light bulb (one of the new high efficiency compact florescent ones) will go off in his head and he'll realize that he needs to be more aggressive and make the most of his limited opportunities - garbage time or not.

Darko is like Joe D signed up for Direct Energy and locked in his hydro cost for 4 years. That "market increase" never arrived...

played as if LB was still coaching him and couldn't show LB that his game has progressed. Now is it time for all of you to realize that maybe we should cut our losses and trade him to the highest bidder. If he can't contribute by the trading deadline, dump him on some team that will play him everyday and we get someone who can give us 15 and 8 off the bench every night

Hahaha, great analogy. I've always been hesitant to lock in to those things.

The thing I love about Joe D. is that he already recognizes that our bench isn't getting it done and won't hesitate to make a move if need be.

I'm confident that either a) our current bench will step it up as the season progress or b) Joe D. will make a move or two by the trade deadline to shore up our bench.

Joe knows we have to be deeper if we have any chance of reclaiming the Championship - especially against a deep team like the Spurs, and made even more important if we have another long road to the finals through Miami and/or Indy.

I don't know if Joe is ready to give up on DMC this year unless we could put a package together to get someone like KG. But I don't think anyone outside of our starting 5 should be buying any real estate in the detroit area any time soon.

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