My observations so far this pre-season:
+ The second unit has a defiinite personality and can be a very good unit;
+ The starters have been rooting pretty well for the bench so far;
+ Darko and Delfino are coming along pretty well in several respects while Evans, Arroyo, Dyce are doing well, too;
+ The starters have been playing very well.

I am hoping that all this means that:
+ The starters will continue to root for the bench although it could mean some reduced minutes for some of them;
+ Darko and Delfino continue to improve, along with Evans, Arroyo and Dyce and the second unit becomes like it was two seasons ago;
+ the starters go into this year's playoffs rested and confident in the bench.

The other thing I hope you guys saw was that Darko played well against Shaq and Zo. I don't think either scored much off him and he posterized Zo on the jam what was disallowed on the trumped up charge by Delfino. The other one was at about 6 1/2 minutes left in the first half when DMC was battling very hard with Shaq, keeping him from getting in deep, and still reached around him and batted the ball out to Delfino for a run out. Then Shaq came back and tried to steamroll DMC and DMC came back and hit him hard, too, although of course, DMC got a foul for his trouble. At any rate, he is not backing down from Shaq and he still has a whole season to get better against an aging Shaq.

And I am not the only one who thought Darko did well against Miami.

I'll take your word for it because I didn't see the game.Pre-season or not Shaq still dominated at least the stat line says he did.I don't care who it is only Shaq stops Shaq for the most part let him get his shut everyone else down.

What was up with Wade?Sounded like a no show.Anyway I think the bench is coming along just fine and the starters should be happy cuz with this team I don't think they really care about minutes.

We should not ignore EC's contributions on Shaq... he was "shut down" by EC.
If you neutralize S.O. the rest of that team doesn't come close to the Pistons talent.... this may no longer be an option... but I don't believe D. Davis will be any factor...
Counting on Darko to slow him down could prove to be risky.

It may not be wise to overlook the Heat based on one preseason home game.

Agreed. The Heat looked bad and were in the game for the most part. They can only get better...

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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 see a lot of jumpshots being taken. I also see guy's settling for a lot of poor shots. I hope this does not continue.


It was nice to see the Pistons clamp down on the Heat. I found it interesting that after the game they interviewed RIP and he was saying how Flip wants them to go into a zone defense on every posession but they sort of like forgot and were still playing man. Rip also commented that he likes their shut down man defense better. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I hope Flip doesn't try to force the zone down our throats.

Rip happened to Wade thats what. He couldn't out quick him or out speed him to the bucket because guess who was faster rip. I hope he does well gaurding him all the time.

Don't think this has been mentioned yet.
I see a different "Subway" - Sub of the Game after each game. Last season it was basically just "Cue picture of Dyess" Dude's stat line may have been 4 pts 3 rebs and BAM!!! Subway Sub of the game, throw in Lindsey or an Arroyo here or there and that was it. This season it could very well be any one of those 5 guys that hit the court. Sometimes it'll be Mo, other nights Delfino etc. This pre-season every sub has come up with a very good night stat wise except for Dyess (and c'mon are we really worried about that, Dyess has shown and proven enough when it counts). The things I really want to see from this bench...

PG-Arroyo, good decisions and start the offense quickly, hit open J's.
SG-Evans, Hit the open shot, D-up their best perimeter player.
SF-Delfino, Hit the J consistently.
PF-Dyess, Do what you do man.
C-Darko, Rebound like your life depends on it.

Truthfully there aren't many teams whose 2nd units we can't dominate. I don't know any 2nd unit C/PF that Dyess and Darko can't take it to. And as I always say, you win the frontcourt battles you can win it all baby.