Indeed they'll miss reggie offensively and surprisingly defensively too, but s. jackson is a decent defender and capable of matching Rip in the scoring department. Therefore the drop off shouldn't be that much of a difference actually folks. However the thought of placing Artest on Rip is a really a win win situation for us. Although artest is a strong one on one defender, he is not used to defending a guy like Rip who runs around constantly and uses so many screens so darn well. Unlike bruce bowen artest tends to be sort of clumsy at times and not exactly so smooth at slipping through screens to get his man. Bottom line if the refs are on the job Rip should be able to score and draw plenty of fouls on artest with the screens and his superior first step & speed.

Yep, Artest uses size and strength, Bowen uses tenacity and frustration. If there is one thing we have learned, Rip's head can be messed with.

Very nice catch Micro.... And to think that there are still folks around here who try to downplay/player hate on the obvious skills of our guy Rasheed "Roscoe" Wallace (not you Himat, these people know who they are)! Roscoe doesn't give us 20ppg & 10rpg but he more than holds his own with the best of of the best PF's in the game. Bottom line he is truly one of the better PF's in the business folks, whether folks care to admit it or not.

GO PISTONS!!!!!!

Well, I like his defense, Ty, despite the Horry gaffe in the Finals. It shoulda been Horry yelling, "Don't leave me, don't leave me!" If he'd cut down on the techs, I'd like it even better. Every other PF in the league hurts his team less with techs.

I'm not a hater. I'd rather have Sheed than not have him. His defense on Duncan was very good in the Finals. Hopefully, he'll come to camp ready to play. From what I've heard, he will be ready.

I dunno Gazoo. Folks might get the wrong message with Horry standing there grabbing his crotch and screaming "Don't leave me" to Sheed.

I think that even with the lost of RM, Indiana is the team to beat this season. Miami is loaded with stars, but how much chemistry will they have? How the Diesel is going to cope with too many players capable to shoot the ball? Indiana on the other hand seems like a well oiled machine and with the addition of that european guy (Sarunas Javi...something) aren't going to miss the geezer. This is the same guy who scorched team USA in the Olympics with his 3-pt shooting. He can flat out shoot.

I still think we have what it takes to win. It's going to be harder, though. Last year, Foster was having a party with the offensive rebs. That is not an option this year. Our teams are too close to comfort.

__________________
Once you go 'rican, you never go seekin'

Hey even if it was Sheed we still got him and Big Ben.

You guys forget that J O'Neil has been injured each of the last 2 playoff runs. The Pacers may have a better regular season than both the Pistons and the Heat, but I doubt they will cause any trouble to either team in the playoffs for 2 reasons: 1) O'Neal will get hurt (mark my words, he is a modern day Scottie my head hurts Pippen) 2) Coach C is NOT a playoff coach and doesn't adapt well.

I hope we are not going to start talking about injuries that really annoys me. Especially since last season we had the toughest schedule (most backtoback games), and we have the most backtoback sets again this year, yeah that's right I counted, and we have 20 sets! Even though this happens we still got through because we're the toughest team the NBA, and unlike many other teams we don't practice our highlightreel dunks. The Pistons spend a long time on their Strength&Conditioning because all the players know they will have to endure a lot to win a championship.

we will whoop the pacers this year. chauncey absolutely dogs tinsley and gets his head out of the game very easily. this year chauncey will be unleashed onto the league. the other teams point guard won't have until the 4th quarter to wait for his beating. he'll get it right at the start of the game. if anybody goes back and watches our old pacer games. they are a different team once tinsley leaves the floor and chauncey makes him make that exit very quickly.

i think we are just too deep and too big for them this year. jo will have his hands full with darko, davis,dice, sheed and ben on him. joe is a smart gm he built his teams for the playoffs. we have a deep front line for miami and he brought in jmax specifically for artest. i'm sure of this. indiana will be a 5 game series. especially now that reggie is gone they won't get the sentimental calls to prolong his career. i still have hopes of reggie signing with us for the playoff run.