our bench not beating ANY of the starting fives in the league is a very bold statement also. our bench is that good often beating OUR own starting 5 in practice.

mcdyess is a starting quality power forward in this league. arroyo was a starter in this league. delfino is underated and mo evans has been slept on by the league darko is also underated but will no longer fly under the radar. these guys are unproven as a unit but i don't think my statement is too bold. they would lose to some teams definitely but a lot of the teams in the league they will give a run for thier money.

can't say I agree with you there buddy.

If you said...

would lose to most teams definitely but a lot of the teams in the league they will give a run for thier money.

I would be more inclined to agree with you.

I can only see them maybe beating Toronto, New Orleans and Charlotte in a best of 3 series. Just not enough experience on that squad outside of Dice. Now, a year from now you might have a more compelling arguement. I think you might be underestimating the talent of the rest of the league. Sure would be interesting to see though. Perhaps in the last couple of games of the regular season if we have home court advantage sewed up.

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Got Jokes?

Yes on Mcdyess. While Darko is certainly coming along he isn't quite there yet...sounds like he will be really good though. Saying Delfino is "underated" or Evans has been "slept on" doesn't hold much water. Other teams have guys like that too.

Also, my original quote was along the lines of " they couldn't beat many, if any of the starting fives". I allowed that it is conceivable they might beat a couple of teams...but those teams are crapola.

I agree we have a very talented bench. However, I would not want to see them start as a unit against starters from most other teams. I think it is essentially like saying that we have the ten best players in the league and I think that is unrealistic to believe. We already say we have the best starting 5. Are we saying that if all of our starters leave tomorrow we will still challenge for a championship? That if our almost two time NBA champ starters all go to a new team we can knock them out even if they wind up on the same team?

Flip isn't Larry. If he thinks Darko and company are better right now than Ben and company based on some practices then we are going to see a very surprising opening day lineup... along with a Pistons loss to all those other guys like Iverson who would be benched behind our bench.

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"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

my original post never said anything about a best of 3 series. i also never said our second unit was better than our starters. i just said they beat them sometimes in practice. so from that point alone i think it's possible for them to beat another starting 5 in the nba.

my delfino,darko and evans comments are based on potential and speculation. but this whole scenario is based on speculation because most likely we will never see the situation come up where our 2nd unit starts against a full starting 5 of another nba team.

most elite teams would beat our second unit. but 7 8 seed playoff teams and down we will definitely give a run for thier money. no i'm not saying we will contend if all 5 starters left. i'm saying that your bench is pretty good when it can put 5 people on the court that can hang with about half of the nba's starting 5's.

but yes. i say we have the best 10 in the league. if you go with a platoon system. but most teams don't put in whole 5's at a time they leave a few starters in. but i will say that other teams in the league can't put 5 bench guys on the court that can mess with ours.

I believe the reason there are not many second units playing in the NBA is that there are very few teams who have a bench as good as ours. I don't believe our bench could beat very many of the starting teams in the league (some but not a lot) but when they start putting just a few of their bench in, our second unit could more than hold their own with those mixed teams. Say any of those teams put in two subs, our second unit could and would mop up the floor with them, either forcing them to put their starters back in or suffering, pointwise.

By 20 games into the season, if we play the second unit, they will be a great force to face. That second unit could also be configured to play against the opponent by, say for instance, put JMax in instead of Evans if we are playing against Artest.

Use the speed and/or power and/or other assets that we need at the time to face certain opponents. By having four of the 'regular second unit players' in at the same time, the chemistry would be prreserved.

Look, I don't really care one way or the other because I think we have the best or second best starting 5, but if anyone think our bench is better than San Antonio's, they are drinking kool-aid for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Oberto-Horry-Nesterovic-Barry-NVE-Finley-Udrih

That is one heck of a bench and by all accounts in the preseason, they are playing like it.

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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."

Agreed 100%. Stay off the wacky stuff people.

Can you imagine what the NBA championship will be like this year if we have a rematch of last year? Wow!!!!!! What a battle from top to bottom!!!!!

Hey guys,

If you have NBATV, they'll be showing the Pistons (and Spurs) camp this Friday @ 7:00PM EST

Thanks for the tip. Know your enemy as I like to say.

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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."