Not without changing personnel.

And, honestly, I'm not sure I could stomach watching the Pistons transition to a run-and-dumb game.

get rid of david stern, stu jackson. danny and joey crawford and that would be a big improvement.. hope rasheed can keep his cool more this year.. ben was so demanding and wanted his way all the time.. maybe the other players resented some of his demands..they may step in and do a lot.. think positive we have some really good players!!

The NBA certainly isn't turning "run and gun". Has everyone forgotten the steady decline in offense before last season? Saying that the rules have assisted the offense is really just to say that they have helped bring offense and defense back in to balance.

They have potato golf here, but the cows and llamas are considered moving (mooing?) natural hazards and it's hard hitting around them.

Nothing more boring to watch than a regular season, western conference game with a final score of 124 to 122 in regulation. I hate those games. Might as well just watch the last 30 seconds to see who gets the ball last.

Basketball (or any sport) without some sort of defense is just boring to watch.

I would kick some serious butt if my golf scores were matched against NBA scores.

I do agree that lack of D games are not always that fun to watch. Kind of like going back in the 70's when the NBA barely survived. Its that flat ball walk it up the court style that you want to avoid and not necessarily low scoring games.

The Pistons main problem is lack of paint points. That is what really seemed to do them in. Live by the jump shot and die by the jump shot. Too much reliance on 3's.

That Piston D has been slipping since it peaked in the 2nd half of the 04 season. The 04/05 team had problems adjusting and last season many young PF/C's seemed to score at will. We had a lack of height problem that also related to paint points. Without an Okur or Campbell to bring some size and help batten down the frontcourt the Pistons often struggled to stop opponents from scoring and getting offensive boards.

I know the point difference was only 2 or so from 05 to 06 but the FG% fell sharply. Teams were just getting higher percentage shots off. Pistons still thrived on creating TO's but unless they took care of the ball and ran a fluid offense they struggled.

In a way we already made the switch.

linwood I agree with you, I enjoy watching good defense over good offense anyday.

You mean like Phoenix?

I think they run a beautiful system.

Free your mind, and "the rest" will follow....

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

I agree Stern is off base. High scoring does not equal enjoyable basketball. Does anyone like college bsketball at your office or involved in an NCAA pool. They are not exactly score-fests. Anyway I can't stand watching the Classic Denver Nuggets. Much more enjoyable is a game with Bill Russell and Celtics of the late sixties.

I agree on one hand that a team like Phoenix runs a system that the players love to play, and the fans there seem to love it too.

While on the other hand, it would be difficult to "change gears" as a fan.

But this whole thread had me thinking about the year the Ravens won the superbowl... with one of the sorriest offenses in the league. Wasn't that right after the "greatest show on turf"?

There will always be room for defense, and that is what Joe built this team around, which is why the selection of Flip Saunders as a coach is even more baffling.

Media Person "Player X, your team had a decent 1st half, what do you think you'll have to do to win this game?"

Player X "We need to get some more stops on the defensive end, and we need to convert more on offense, and we've got to beat them in the battle of the boards."

Media person "Back to you Sportscaster X."

Sportscaster X "And there you see Player X echoing what I stated were the keys to the game earlier in our broadcast (que graphic of "Sportscaster X's Keys to the Game")..."

My point? It's not rocket science. It all comes down to outscoring the other team, no matter how you go about it. If you've got the personnel, run and gun. If you've got different personnel, lock it down and grind it out.

Hey Flip: You can't do both, but you can keep the players prepared to do a little of each.

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