i agree there is nothing wrong with pointing out something a guy needs to work on.

but i feel darko is singled out for his lack of rebounding. yet our starting power forward rebounds in a similar fashion. i think it's more important for sheed to rebound than it is for darko. i too agree darko should work on rebounding. i think darko should be more aggressive offensively for his own shot. i think darko should knock some people down instead of light fouls. i also think he needs to be on the court to do this.

Sheed gets just over 6 rebounds a game, which ain't great, but when you have the league's leading rebounder, it doesn't matter so much. Ben doesn't score, but Sheed does. Sheed doesn't rebound that well, but Ben does. I don't see Sheed's rebounding being a problem when he brings a lot of other things to the table: great defense and an inside-outside game that causes matchup problems.

i agree i don't see sheeds rebounding as too much of a problem. it's a team game. mcdyess rebounds well and jmax rebound well. those are the guys usually in with darko. so the team is ok. but darko can get better on the boards he's still young.

Doesn't anybody here notice how many rebounds Sheed backs off on when Ben is bouncing around. I have noticed that it is becoming common knowledge here that Sheed is a weak rebounder. I really don't think that is the case.

Agreed, don't forget the double diget rebound game against SA, last night I think I remember atleast 3 times I heard Ben yell same as they were both there for the rebound. Sheed isn't and has never been about stats, he cares about getting to wear his belt again.

As you can tell, it's been one of them days. LOL

If you think that's bad, you should've seen me last night screaming at the TV.

I think Darko will be a good player but I don't see where the minutes are coming from on this team in the next two years. darko needs 10-12 minutes a game, not 5-6. I don't agree with Thompson but the problem still remains. Davis is going to get more minutes soon. They spent money on him.

Chris McCoskey said basically (although a lot nicer) what Zo did about the comments from TNT on WDFN this evening.

Is Zoso really Chris McCoskey?

Just kidding.

I stand by my opinion. I don't buy into DMC lovers and DMC haters. I want what is best for the Pistons. if that's Darko taking 18 foot jumpers as we win championships, so be it. I'm not crazy about that style of bball by bigs, but I'm sure that the winning will wear down my preconceptions.

We're not seeing any competitive fire. We're not seeing the rewards of Arnie Kander correcting his movement mechanics, professional weight training, elite practice competition and arguable two of the better coaches in the NBA.

All I care about are results, and there are none. Why I agreed with Thompson was simple. He's right. DMC was GIVEN time early in games and lost it. PERIOD. If he's not playing, THEN HE CAN'T PLAY. Flip is not stupid. He gave into whatever pressures there are to develop DMC early, but as the team starts to round into mid-season form, Darko is left on the outside looking in.

Delfino has played his way onto the court in grand fashion. He's been tremendous lately. Particularly on defense and mixing it up with "name" players. You don't see that from Darko. On the one hand, people say the he doesn't try in garbage time, and yet in NY he did give effort which blows that theory out of the water.

Some folks didn't like his rebounding. You know what I didn't like? That there was a fast break, and he had the opportunity to be the third man, trailing for a rebound putback, or to pressure the inbounds off of the make, and he just pulled up and stopped running.

There is no joy for him in playing. No enthusiasm.

Hey, stay, go, sit, play, I could care less. But for the love of Pete, I'm tired of hearing that he is a teenager (13-19 is a teenager, he's on the outside), or that he isn't getting chances. He's been given chances, he has capitalized on few of them.

Wake up and smell the coffee folks. It went from, you will get playing time, to you have to earn playing time under Flip. Everything we have seen from the new coach indicates that he is nothing like Larry Brown when it comes to player relations.

You see Arroyo and Delfino having fun on the sidelines, because they are interested. If DMC is no longer interested, and just happy to pick up his enormously bloated paychecks, then good for him. Please do it on another squad. We don't need anyone peeing in the Pistons DNA gene pool.

Just had to get that off of my chest.

__________________
To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

Here's my take on Arroyo:

1). This favorite plan (call it Plan A) is to practice his crossover dribble out front until he can brakedown his opponent and drive through the lane for a layup. He usually ends up on his butt because he is too weak to finish the shot. He may get a couple of freethrows.

2). If Plan A doesn't work, he goes to Plan B. Same beginning. Dribble around until he can beat his opponent and then drive into the lane. Only this time he can't get to the rim, so he pulls up for a mid-range runner in the lane. He occasionally makes one.

3). If he can't get to the rim, or is blocked from shooting, then he goes to Plan C. He much prefers plans A or B, but will, if forced to, go to plan C. This begins the same way - dribbling around until he can beat is opponent and then driving into the lane. If Plans A or B aren't available then, and only then, he will look to dish off to one of his bigs.

4). If he is unable to beat his opponent off the dribble, and this happens quite frequently, he goes to Plan D. Plan D involves dribbling around for twenty seconds trying to get by his opponent. When he can't, he waits until there is about 4 seconds left on the shot clock and passes quickly to one of his teammates who then has about 3 seconds to throw up some god-awful buzzer-beater. If the shot goes in, Arroyo get an assist. If not, the team-mate gets charged for the shot.

He then retreats to defense. His defense can be summarized quickly by using his nickname: EL MATADOR.

Thus endeth today's lesson.

So how exactly does all this translate into Arroyo having the 2nd highest assist rate in the league, behind only Nash? And why does our offense only drop off two percent between when CB, an MVP candidate, and Arroyo run the point for us. I'd be curious to hear how this is possible with all this overdribbling. What exactly is the magic Arroyo pulls out of his hat to be the most effective assist man in the league despite this great problem of his? (Although Nash is ahead of him in assists per minute, Arroyo blows Nash away in assist to turn ratio.)