Every Pistons player was getting fouls called on them in second quarter, starters and bench.

Two of the three fouls called on AJ were very questionable, especially the last one which was only called so the refs could stop play so ABC could get their required commercial in. That however, is all part of the game.

The fouls that he made did not kill us. He was plus 3 in the first half and we led by 6 at half time. We never got the lead over 10 in the first half nor did we ever lose the lead in the second quarter when he was in.

The zu cru gets no respect from Stern's handlers.

Amir was getting gipped.


Also, just a note- Amir is quietly moving up the Roland Rating list on the team. He currently sits in the #4 spot between Rip and Sheed.

Detroit Pistons NBA stats and data from 82games.com

Rookies, unless hyped by the national media, rarely if ever, get the calls. Stuckey is still rarely getting calls when he goes to the rack.

His offensive foul on his drive to the rack was a very questionable as the Dallas guy was backpeddling all the way. There was also one drive he made to the basket in which he was fouled on his original shot and fouled again on this attempt to make the put back but no call was made on either play.

Getting no calls on the offensive end is one thing, but getting calls for just breathing at an opposing player and having to come off the floor is something different.

I thought the three first half foul calls on Amir yesterday were okay. He hacked two guys going up for shots. He went over the back trying to get an offensive foul.

Once in a while, Stuckey seems to get bumped with no foul call when he drives to the hoop. Perhaps the officials haven't gotten used to him yet. I like the way he attacks. He'll get the respect eventually.

I was also ok with the calls. His 3rd one was dumb reach in after the opponent had secured a rebound. Didn't bother me one bit that Flipper yanked AJ for it. Development ain't always pretty or kindhearted.

yep yanking for the rest of a half, or for extended time within the game is part of learning....

just as long as that doesn't carry over to the next game... (well unless there is a game after game bad habit that we can't put up with)

3 fouls per game is AJ's limit set by the coaching staff.

I haven't read it anywhere. However, if you check all the games that he has played in since he was moved into the rotation he has not been put back in a game in the regular rotation once he has incurred three fouls in that game.

He was reinserted Sunday after incurring his 3rd foul but that was in garbage time.

I think the coaching staff is trying to do several things with this.

1. Not get too many fouls called on us as a team
2. Not get AJ too frustrated. A lot players, especially young ones will tend to lose it a bit when they get called with too many fouls.
3. Emphasis to AJ how important it is to the team that he learn to stop committing unnecessary fouls whenever possible.
4. By yanking him at three fouls it will force him to learn to stop fouling if he wants playing time.
5. It will also change his mindset to where he starts thinking in terms of 3 fouls to foul out and not 6, though technically of course he will not have fouled out. In the long run this will improve his defense and allow him to stay on the floor longer and greatly reduce the danger of actually fouling out.

How do you explain all of those games where he quickly picked up 4 or 5 fouls in a short stretch? Are you calling Flip a lier?

Double check it.

I am sure that you will find that since he has been put in the regular rotation, only 3 games, he has not played in the rotation after incurring his 3rd foul.

I have also said that Flip will play him in garbage time with 3 or more fouls which Flip has.

I am not calling anyone a liar. Also Flip never said anything about the 3 foul rule. I just came to that conclusion based upon the way that Flipper has played AJ since AJ has been inserted into the rotation.

There have been only two games in which AJ has incurred more than 3 fouls this year. (See link)

Dec 2nd against NJ (5). We won by 23. AJ got 10 minutes as I recall in the 4th quarter which was not part of the regular rotation.

Nov 15th against the Lakers (4) when we got blown out. In that game even Samb played and with AJ as you will recall. This was not part of the regular rotation.

NBA.com : Amir Johnson Game By Game Page