Ouch, Flip Murry was 0-5, 0-2 and 0-2 tonight in 22 minutes.

Everyone is entitled to an off night or two, especially coming to a new team. But I just hope Daddy (aka Flip Sr.) doesn't continue to give his son decent minutes if he doesn't start earning them soon.

Flip n Flip, Senior n Junior. Wonder why Flip Senior is so stubborn. He keeps telling the media that he expects Delf to play 20 minutes a game but 2 games into the season, Delf has yet to play more than 15 minutes even though he's playing well. Yet, Flip Junior does not get yank when he's not playing well. If Flip hates Delf so much, why doesn't he trade him away?

Jmax should be getting more minutes the way he's playing. Reward the players, Flip. Starters are playing too many minutes again especially on back to back games. Starters are not getting younger. Are you trying to burn them out before the All Star break this season?

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DETROIT BASKETBALL

i thought you had to "earn" the minutes first. oh wait that only applies if you are a young euro player. in my opinion it's time for fino to start eating flip murray's minutes. delfino has played well for us flip hasn't so far.

I'm agreeing with bballjay. Reward Delfino early and set the tone for the season.

If the Pistons can start a game right then Delfino can play more. I thought Murry played a lot better last night. Had no points but he ran the team pretty well when he was the backup point. Only had 1 TO when he tried an interior pass and that was understandable typical PG error.

Maxiel got into a game when the frontcourt guys were all playing well. That has to be ecouraging for the bench.

On the game...

• Solid effort from the starters
• Bench performed well when they were in the game. Special shout out to J-Max, Delfino and Dice for legitimizing the second unit
• Flip looked horrible on offense/defense. Solid with ball handling.
• Nazr in my opinion has shown up the most during the regular season. He has the most pressure to perform and has responded with solid play. Definitely a bargain.
• Sheed looks like he took this game personal. Great effort by him to bounce back from last games dissapointing performance. Unfortunately, he looks out of shape again so I'd be interested to see how much effort he puts into this back to back
• Tayshaun is really showing all the elements to his game. Thank you Joe for making sure we got this guy signed
• Defense still looked average and if we don't improve we will struggle against the powerhouses this year

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"I'm a diamond, you're a cubic zir-con-ia" - Nice and Smooth via The Low

I know I'm only repeating what has been said already- but I wonder if Flip is schizophrenic? During interviews/press conferences he always talks about involving the bench more, giving minutes to Fino, rest the bench and so on. And as soon as the season starts, he's playing the starters close to 40mpg and Fino rides the bench, even if he plays solid.
I simply don't get it- last season should've shown Flip how worthless the regular season record can be. I know the team's bench isn't the best, but he should try to make it playoff- ready at least. Right now, given their experience, I wouldn't trust in Fino, Maxiell or Murray (ok, I wouldn't trust him if he played 35minutes a night, because I remember his performance last year against Detroit very well).

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I'm a wannabe- GM, but I stand to it.

Calm down guys. He'll probably use the bench more today. Flip needs to stop playing the 1. He's a scorer and he'd do much better at the 2. I think the Pistons should keep Blalock in the 15 man roster. Lindsey won't play much till playoffs, and if we had Blalock we could keep Flip at the 2 and Delfino at the 3.

In some ways it really is a simple game. Move the ball around and don't turn it over and even shooting badly you can score 100 points. There were a number of things I thought LB was wrong about, but he sure got this one right.

Team looked pretty good for the second game of the season especially considering the limited regular rotation time in the preseason.

Nazr - Fouls still mount up quickly (would have fouled out if he had played 38 minutes), but shot the ball well, rebounded, and seemed to be more active on defense. The big men still aren't sure how to play together though.

Sheed - Great bounce back after the debacle the other night. Shot the ball well, took the right kind of shots. If this was his average game you would be very happy.

Prince - Seemed kind of out of the flow of the game to me. Not sure Flip's offense has figured out what to do with Tay.

Rip - What can you say - very nice game. Was even going to the boards early and pushing the ball up the floor.

CB - Couldn't shoot the ball for the world, but went inside time and again. Eleven assists, did not once turn the ball over. Guards rule.

Dice - Great boardwork in decent minutes. Projected to 36 minutes he would have come in with 11 points and 13 boards. Didn't turn the ball over, but looks unsure of what's going on with Nazr on the floor.

Murray - Why is he here again? Didn't produce and didn't seem to be putting in much effort either.

Delfino - Unfortunately stuck at the lost 3 spot. Rebounded very well in a short stint. Projected up to Tay's minutes he would have come in with five points and 10 boards.

Although there weren't many true fast breaks, the Pistons did at least push the ball up. And after the slow 1st and 3rd quarter starts played some fairly decent defense.

Minutes continue to be a problem. I don't see any changes in the rotation minutes-wise from last season so far. Flip is going to have to figure out how to substitute in the first quarter or this isn't going to change. A couple of guys need to come out around the six minute mark to enable any sort of flexibility in substitution later. I know that's tough given how slowly the team starts, but if you log a third of the starters minutes in the first, and it's a close game in the second half you have no choice but to play guys in the high 30s. And we all know what eventually comes of that.

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

This may deserve its own thread. Is Flip simply a liar? Or is he insane, schizo, obsessive compulsive, in denial, ect. ect.

He talked about how great it was to be able cut the starters minutes because the bench played well. And how he had to force Rip out of the game, because he didn't want Rip complaining about being tired at the end of the season. Did Flip look at the minutes? Rip, Sheed, Billups, and Tay all played 36+ minutes. Where's the cutback in that? Delfino got 15 minutes? Huh?

Flip spent the entire summer saying he'd cut back starter minutes, develop the bench, and he's doing neither. Darko got more time last year than JMax is getting now.

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