Now that I have your attention, there are a couple of other comments, first. Ben played extremely well, and the free throw attempts show that he is practising. What a difference that would make through the season.

I may have not that much basketball watching capability (no surprise to many of you), but I don't really see anything that Carlos Arroyo is doing wrong. He is doing it all, in my estimation. Carlos Delfino shows really good stretches, as well. I don't see a lot that Evans is doing, it just does not seem to catch my eye, except his shooting is right on.

Dyce, Sheed and CB are not shooting well, yet, consistently, but I know they will. Rip and Taysh just light it up.

Now, what this post is all about. Everybody knows full well how I feel about DMC, but I find myself squirming around in my chair in front of the fireplace, just telling him to get more involved in the offence. Darn it, all he is doing is setting screens all over the floor and going to an open area, where he does not get the ball often. He needs to get into the habit of breaking toward the basket, barrelling down the lane, and shoving inside with his back to the basket. I think he would get more passes then, and also be in position to get offensive boards.

He is doing quite well, I believe, on defense as he is bothering shots, jumping out on shooters, getting a couple of boards, and all, but he needs to get more involved on offense or he is going to lose one of the reasons he gets minutes: some scoring in addition to his defense.

I will let him see the tape I have of the Atlanta game and those soaring dunks earlier this year. He just does not seem to be even attempting to do those things. DRAT!! !!!

I don't think it is too soon to expect some of that fire on "O".

i agree darko needs to get a little bit more aggressive offensively. his jumper is falling quite nicely though. he shoots it from pretty deep and is shooting it confidently. he shoots an occasional airball but his shot is dropping now that he knows he's going to get playing time after the shot. i think maybe darko needs more plays ran for him instead of just the set offense. make it a point to get him involved he's too gifted offensively not to take advantage of his skills. i agree though instead of fading he should dive to the hole sometimes. but with more minutes we will see more of what he has.

i think darko is feeling out his role offensively. he also knows that his minutes will come from being a defensive presence. so i think it's too early to see what darko will be like offensively. we know he's going to be great defensively.

Sheed does it all the time. The difference is that Sheed always has someone charge out at him. Just a matter of time before Darko has hit enough shots out there to where the other team respects it. Then it won't matter if he actually shoots much, he will have spread out the defense.

So, the problem right now is not what he is doing, but the fact the other team is showing it so little respect. The cure is to throw him the ball and let him shoot. The season is young yet. Just one more thing to look forward to.

He's better off without it.
Do you remember as a kid waking up in the morning grabbing your Baseball mitt and not returning home till after the street lights came on?

The day might go something like...
Hoops, baseball, or hockey, block tag, going to a Piston or Tiger game...
anything but mindless hours in front of the tube or PC.
Some of the best stuff was free.

It's not easy getting todays kids outside.


So far Delfino has been more of a liabilty than asset... giving up too much on defense (it's on DVR)... he also needs to protect the ball better.

__________________
With politicians the future lies ahead

'berbs has put his finger on an important point. Watching Darko wander around setting cross screens gives a pretty good indication that he doesn't have a principal role in the plays run by his unit. Why is that? He's demonstrated a pretty good basketball IQ, so I don't think it's for lack of understanding. And we saw him run a Rip Hamilton baseline route for a turnaround jumper against the Bulls, so it's not lack of skill. Instead he's often a last resort, and the result is usually bad spacing or a poor passing angle or just his own aimlessness. Things are a little better when Delfino handles the ball, but I still don't get a feeling that our bench players have much confidence in each other.

It feels like we're ignoring the second unit's only low post scoring option, and we're going to need more balance to avoid becoming Raptoresque.

Lanier, it's almost like we don't want a Off. center. Laimbeer and BBen are not Off. Centers. I think they want Def. Centers. Which wasn't Darkos forte coming up. I think we're trying to hard to change his stripes. I don't know why this is. If his O meter goes up 1 notch - look out!

The articles written really make it seem like the Pistons embarrassed the Raptors in a bad way. They are blaming eachother, skipping their day off, and the coach is sleepless.

That's what happens when you light it up. They can't blame the loss on their uncharacteristally bad shooting night, which is what a lot of teams did when they were crushed by the Pistons D. When you score at will on somebody, it makes them depressed.

TaShawn, It's Babcock, he doesn't know how to build a team. Bad GM vs Good GM-- Piston Discussion