I am not sold on having Nazr start the season as a starter. Haven't we been through this before.

If Webber leaves, which seems to be a given based on recent news coming from the LA & Dallas press that Webber will sign with the Mavericks. We have no backup center.

If this comes to fruition, we are left with only JMax, AJ, Rasheed and McDyess as the bigs. We will have one of the shortest lineups in the league at the PF & Center positions but will be very guard heavy with seven. down

I think that we need to acquire another big man, if McDyess goes with an injury we are screwed.

I am comfortable with Nazr. What's out there that could improve the team? Granted, Nazr is not an elite player, but he is a serviceable center and will provide minutes, points, and boards.

I'm sold, but certainly not thrilled. Sold, in that barring some major hoodwinking by Joe, any big the Pistons picked up would probably end up behind Nazr in the rotation.

But you're right, they're basketball short. Juggling it all well is going to require injury free seasons from these guys, and the coaching staff really looking to change the lineup based on the matchups.

As it is constructed now. The Pistons are a better rebounding team, than they were last year with C-Webb.

AJ is actually our best rebounder and easily capable of getting 10 + rebounds a game if he gets 30 plus minutes.

Dyess is about as good as AJ but it is not very likely that he will be getting 30 + minutes a game.

The whole question this year for the Pistons is:

How many minutes will AJ get?

That will be determined by how comfortable Flip is with AJ's defense. It is really as simple as that.

If AJ can perform at the defensive end and I don't mean just by blocking shots, but rather by stopping his man, handling switches, staying out of foul trouble etc, then we will win it all. If he can't then we will have to fight to get out of the EC.

Let's look at the list of besy 7 footers: Dirk, Shaq, and Yao.

Duncan, KG, and many other very good players are just under 7 feet just like Sheed.

So it's not like the Pistons need a great 7 footer. The Pistons won't need to worry about Yao because I am pretty sure Houston won't be in the Finals next season. Dirk is a 7 footer, but he plays outside. The Pistons won't have huge problems with Dirk if they meet in the Finals. Finally Shaq is not the same player he used to be. Nazr and the rest of the big guys should be able to keep Shaq from taking over games in the playoffs.

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"That's the end, man." Rasheed Wallace

Nazr is crap and a waste of bench and cap space. Had we not signed him to that absolutely ridiculous contract, we would have been able to move him by now. That money should have been kept and used to actually bring in someone talented, even if it wasn't at the center position.

The Nazr signing was equivalent to drafting Mateen Cleaves. Something the ownership could pass off as a solution, but would in no way be successful.

We still have another couple of months to grab someone via trade before then. However at this point we have to be satisfied since that is all we have. Even if C-webb manages to resign with the Pistons, Flip still needs to play both he and Narz until AJ or whomever can step in and take over the 5. The lack of or lmited results from the position will probably result in another midseason aquisition for the center spot.

The signing of Lloyd Vaught and Eric Leckner were a lot worse than the signing of Nazr. Nazr as limited as he is can still do some things fairly well. When we got Vaught and Leckner they were the shell of what they used to be and were more worthless than Nazr.

We can throw Montross into that pot as well.

Geez how could I have forgotten about him?

Answer: Very easily.