Linwood,

I thought about Foster too. We don't need a great player to take some minutes in that center position. But it would be nice to have the option to put in a big if the situation called for it.

Yes, Ben in his prime and a younger Sheed together--didn't the team get something like 17 blocks in game 2 vs. Indiana the championship year?

The best keep secret about Sheed in the past: He is a big time defender.

Didn't someone on the forum start a "Dyess Appreciation Thread" I think it got about 10 posts before it got moved down off the front page due to lack of interest.

Often times I wonder if some folk ever watch other teams other than the Pistons. It's as if folk think that there are tree's that grow 7'ers with mobility and an inside post game. Y'all really, I mean really don't appreciate what we have here, especially when it comes to Antonio McDyess, today's Piston fan is so spoiled and disillusioned these days its not even funny.

Prince and Sheed are that good. And Rip and Billups are pretty darn good too at defense. Still, all season long, our starters themselves have had continuous problems on D. Go look what happens when Maxiell gets to play. Our field goal percentage against drops dramatically.

Yes, Dyess is the problem as far as our first unit. That does not mean he does not have a good game defensively now and then, depending on who he is matched up against, but those games are rare. Further, of late, he can barely move for being too tired, and he particularly plays badly even compared to what he was doing earlier in the season. A lot of the problem could be helped by simply having Dyess play less.

Dyess is their strongest rebounder by far. He gets reounds that nobody else can get in traffic, save for Sheed on rare occasions.

Dyess' shot is way more lethal when he receives a pass from the inside. Lately they have been feeding him off of one pass from the top of the key. He doesn't get the same space off of those.

The All-Defensive team is kind of a joke. Sheed is a better defender than any of the other 4 starters on their best night. If he scored 20 a night he'd have made the team by now. Billups is a lot more inconsistent in the effort he puts out on D.

If it is indeed the teams strategy to let the guards penetrate, what would DET's guards responsibility be on D?

Stop the shot. Guard bigger players on switches. Keep the other team's guards from posting up. Get defensive rebounds when our bigs keep them alive.

You guys are living in the past and comparing our defense to our old defense. Nobody plays like that anymore because it doesn't get rewarded. They are calling the games differently. Within the framework of the new NBA, our defense is just as good as our old defense was.

Bingo..... everybody talks about how the bad boy defense would have handled james last year in the playoffs... heck we would be lucky if we had one starter left by the 4th quarter the way they call the games now compared to then....

This is the pattern of the NBA.. Detroit becomes the best defense team in the league, league changes rules so our way won't work.... lol

this team is a great defensive team in todays rules, and will only get better as the kids learn to play within the rules and start to get a little respect from the refs.

But you are doing none of those things if he strategy is to let the other teams guard go by you. There is no one to switch with. You switch on a pick/screen & roll.

The Spurs managed to play D on LeBron. He didn't look like the same player. Saying you can't because of the rule changes is a cop out in my opinion.

I'm not saying that we are actively trying to let their guards by us. I think that we just have big guards. There are pro and cons to that. The cons are that we allow some penetration and don't get a lot on the offensive end either. The pros are plentiful. We are a team without a true center that is 2nd in all around defense and 6th in all around offense. And our guards are a huge part of that.

No other PG can post CB up. His height and strength allow him to take a lot of 3's away from his opponent and out muscle them for rebounds and loose balls. On the other end, his 3-point shot is one of our greatest weapons. Usually when CB gets inside, it is because the other team is so paranoid about him shooting that they overplay him. That is when he draws fouls too.

Could we improve and go from the 2nd best defensive team to the 1st best if CB and Rip were able to stay in front of their man? Probably not. Boston's edge is too much.

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"I’ll just say this: We’re not talking to teams about their second- or third-best players." Joe Dumars talking about his plan to get other teams' 4th best players.

The Spurs played defense on Lebron because the officials called the games differently.

Now you may choose to disagree and that is your privilege. If you do however disagree, we have no basis from which to discuss this, which is of course okay.