No doubt Kgreg, Nazr is slower reacting than what we've come to expect over the past few years (which leads to fouls)... but as you said he is making progress... there aren't many efficient scoring centers available at the MLE that are also lock down defenders.... it's not like he's playing major minutes... yeah that's what we want to do is pay a guy 5M (and growing) to impersonate DMC's towel waiving.

Does anyone know what Rasheed said to Maxiell after that spectacular blown dunk?

It would have been easy to fake it on defense and look for your own shot against this team. The Pistons got after it on "D" and shared the ball, they played the right way. I like the way everyone is finding their roles and figuring out how to play together.

I got an early Christmas present, three Delfino-Maxiell pick and rolls, Flip Murray used his handle to create for a teammate three times and Nazr looked good in a Piston uni for the first time. I know it was only Atlanta but I am excited about the direction the team is moving in. 2007 should be a fine time for Piston fan.

No they are not. We were beat 14-3 on offensive boards tonight at one point. What evidence is that of Mohammed getting any better at being where he is suppose to be. I also read Merc's response. Nope, it ain't just lack of quicks. Due to his ineptness, slowness, or whatever, Mohammed simply makes no attempt at all to get over. A particularly glaring example of this was in the Cleveland game, where Gooden beat Sheed and was going for the layup, pretty much uncontested. Mohammed pretended nothing was happening, kept on boxing out Ilgauskas like it would matter. No way was Gooden going to miss that shot. Boxing out was pointless. Getting over to bother the shot, or maybe forcing a pass which could possibly be knocked away or fumbled is what Mohammed should have done. Basically, Mohammed is religiously staying with his own man, right on him, rather than ever trying to help out on drives to the basket.

What this is creating is real simple. Every time Mohammed enters the game, the other team simply calls a layup drill. They know from the scouting reports that Mohammed will never challenge. Not a thing to worry about. All they do is sucker Mohammed to leave the basket area and poof, its wide open. Mohammed never manages to watch his own guy and still keep an eye on penetration. Or at this point, he stays blind to it to avoid picking up fouls.

Sure, a lot of this is Mohammed just being to slow, knowing how slow he is, and therefor just not trying to playing any helpout D. But some of it, a lot of it, is just plain laziness in my opinion. Its one thing to stick with your guy if there is a possibility that the ball might get passed that way. Its quite another when the play is obviously to the basket and you do nothing.

PS, I got off track from the rebounding aspect, but its the same thing. They take Mohammed away from the basket before they shoot the ball, all too easily. Mohammed, in my opinion, should be replaced in the rotation by Amir Johnson. In any case, whether you agree or not with that, it certainly would not hurt to let Amir play. Let him compete for minutes. Then let the better players play, and the worse sit.

Maxiel did some rookie things and was overly-aggressive but I am still really bullish on this guy. He is a rookie really and we will have to live with some of his mistakes. He will learn that he doesn't always have to dunk.

The key, I believe, is that our team plays at a certain (slowed down) pace by design and in comes Maxiel playing at a different pace. Teams have trouble adjusting and the better teams are usually older and Maxiel can prove to be quite a weapon. Larry always wanted someone who could come in and "change the pace" of the game. Teams will have to focus on Maxiel and this will open things up for others. If this scenario continues, it is a major development for the Pistons.

Maxiel in combination with Davis, etc., makes us tough again down low. His play is infectious and Billips said as much tonight after the game. I believe that Maxiel sparking the bench play will produce more easy games like tonight further resting the starters.

Nazi will never be a star but he has shown that he is no scrub offensively at least. We need to make up for Ben's loss and Nazi's even minimal offense helps. Nazi should continue to run as he did tonight. Lee, he is slow and his help defense is poor but he may find his way as the season progresses. I want to see him blocking shots. There is more than one way to skin the cat. We need a center for the big teams. We need fouls to use and not have Sheed use them. Davis is 37 and we have to save him.

Good guys, Bad guys, just my arbitrary reward system.

He got blocks, but he let Shelden Williams score all over him. He also only got 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. He also left a ton of points on the floor and didn't show a lot of hustle unless he thought he was going to score.

I love this kid, but I expect more now. He's answered some questions but his work is far from done, and ferocious dunking is not going to win playoff games. He's gunna need to learn how to defensive rebound if he wants to play PF for the Pistons.

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They are the archetype for dominance. They are the gatekeepers of the conference. They are the Detroit Pistons.

roscoe, one to add to your 'notes'.

Seven Pistons had at least two blocked shots in the game. It was only the second time since the NBA starting recording blocked shots in 1973-74 that a team had as many as seven different players block two (or more) shots in the same game. The only other such game was also by the Pistons, but that was in a double-overtime game against Atlanta on Oct. 18, 1980

Excellent summaries by everyone. Nothing to add. Great Job!

Same here. Excellent summaries.

Only thing is throughout the game I was shocked at all the offensive boards like the rest of you were. Kept looking at the Palace stat display and could not believe how we could be up so much while giving up so many extra shot attemepts. Like a friggen Houdini act - how could we be up so much. When the Pistons got an offensive board it immediatly was slammed back in for 2 points. When the Hawks got one they kicked it back out and either missed again, had it blocked or turned it over.

That Stat was just simply not hurting us in that game. Guess thats the difference between an experienced vet team and a rookie one. You are not going to freak out and make all kind of adjustments over one stat when you have been enjoying a comfortable lead all game.

Hard to complain about a 27 point win. We know we have a decent rebounding team this season and something like that is really not going to happen very often.

17-8. That extrapolates to a 55 or 56 win season. Bulls are trying to figure out how in the heck they can catch up to us.

I'll have to watch Nazr more close to see if he "never comes over to help"... Tivo wouldn't lie... would it?
I would like to add that Amir playing at the 5 is a bit premature... he's still too light in the pants... he was having trouble holding his position at PF (I can find the quotes from managment on this subject).
As for the disparity on the O boards, our perimeter defense is just as much too blame... it's causing our bigs to get out of position from blocking out.... nobody will cover two men like Ben.... we'll need more help from our guards to collapse & crash the boards.... they were leaking out early... but you can't get a fast break without the ball.
I do think the zone is helping to defend the P&R... Tayshaun in particular is so smart at recognizing switches... thankfully we have the size to switch without losing much length.
Have you guys noticed a new trend lately?... our guards are bringing the ball up quicker... we have more of the shot clock to find the open shot... much better than the plodding predictable slow sets.
It appears that our half court pressure is improving also... more steals and transition buckets.

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With politicians the future lies ahead

I don't know if chauncey brings it up quicker but Rip really pushes it. Delfino and Blalock too. But thats good cuz it varies throughout the game. I like the aggressive tempo. This team is really taking advantage of its flexibility.

I also believe that the guards who were leaking out early are mostly covering the long rebounds.

The earlier gripes I had about this not being a team (as opposed to 5 guys and some others) is fading away. We are playing the bench and its not costing us games.

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