It is my firm belief that AJ and maybe Stuckey is/are are salvation.

What do I mean by that.

AJ definitely has the ability and personality to become a media darling which is what we need to make it back to the Finals. Stuckey is not quite as personable as AJ but he has the skills to become a big difference maker on the court. Throw in AA who writers can find a few nice things to write about and this is where our hope lies.

If they start playing consistently and as good as they can then the media could easily turn this into a story and build enough fan interest to get us back in the Finals. Kind of what happened with Rodman, Salley and Acquirre with the Bad Boys.

I haven`t followed all that has been said in this thread, so I hope I don`t repeat what has already been said.

I love AJ cracking the rotation and the way he is playing. The Pistons need that energy he immediatly brings - with J-Max, they can wreak havoc on an opposing team both offensively and defensively.

However, the two of them will be extremely foul proned, they will get no respect from the refs and a good opposing coach would attack instead of avoiding them.

Having said that, it would be up to Flip to play them at the right time and against the right matchups. I say go fro it, and let`s see what happens.

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"I`m shocked" The Low, on the Pistons game 2 win in the ECF at Boston.

AJ will get lots of respect from the refs by the end of the year. He is not foul prone. He is inexperienced and as he gets more minutes his foul rate will drop significantly.

You can see improvement already in his defense in that he is using his feet and body a lot more and his jumping a lot less than at the beginning of the year.

Thats why I love this kids game. He is a "Natural". I noticed this the first time I saw him play. He just is gifted with an incredible natural set of basketball instincts and talent.

A perfect example of what Joe D. is talking about happened as I recall in the Orlando game when they pressed us in the back court and AJ got the pass in the back court. He was immediately double teamed along the sidelines. He quickly looked for someone to pass to but both defenders had his passing lanes cut off, so what did he do? He dribbled along the sideline right pass both of them until in got in the front court and then passed off.

Almost all rookies and a lot of veteran big men would have turned the ball over in that situation.

PISTONS: Taking the Temperature

I forgot to mention. In effect he was triple teamed when you count the sideline as a defender. Yet he was able to dribble out of it beat the clock and pass the ball to another Pistons player.

Not a heck of a lot of 6'11" guys can effectively break a triple team by dribbling out of it.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

JOE DUMARS: On why Tayshaun hasn't been his best, why he didn't sign Chris Webber

That's a nice read. It sounds to me like he has been honestry trying to trade 2 players to create a roster spot for Webber, but that he couldn't make it work yet. And he didn't want Chris enough to make a bad deal.

Sounds like he and Chris both handled it very professionally though.

It looks like Flipper has instituted a 3 foul and out rule for AJ, since AJ has been put in the regular rotation.

In all the games that AJ has played in since being put in the regular rotation he has been pulled as soon as he got his 3rd foul.

He did return yesterday in the second half but that was only in garbage time.

He is going to have to work his way through it.

i can see why flip didn't put him back in - all the fouls early in the 2nd quarter killed us, dallas got back into the game at the FT line and we lost our flow.

but he looked good in GT and gained some experience in the 2nd quarter, which is more than he was doing on the bench!

I heard David Stern and ABC told the officials before the game to give Amir 3 quick fouls just so Orlando and Boston would meet up in the Eastern Conference Finals.