Playing time is the issue here. If he can get time, keep him. Otherwise, let him go to NBDL and work on his game. Then glue Nazr to the bench later on and bring Cheick in.

Too bad we can't sent Nazr down to the D-League to showcase him. He'd probably average a double double.

wow, this was a fun game to watch. i saw a little at the bar and then watched the whole thing when i get home later.

not mentioned yet is stuckey's passing, which was fantastic yesterday. he had that lead-in lob to dice in the 1st quarter, then drove the lane and drew all 4 defenders, kicking it back to tay for an open 3 with a no-look pass, then had 2-3 other occasions where he threaded the needle through 2-3 guys to hit our players in the post. his jumper will come - a lot of them were very close. the off-balance 3 at the end of the 1st quarter was sweet.

afflalo continues to impress. it's funny how he's trying to be sold as hunter's defensive replacement / protégé, but he has solid shooting form, takes smart shots, makes a good percentage, and has 3-ball range. he's just a solid all-around player.

samb was impressive, and looked a lot better than when i saw him in person. he has good leaping ability, great form on his shot, and moves fairly well. i agree that the D-league will be best for him, as the potential is there. now, i imagine he'd still get destroyed by guys like camby and other 1st string power forwards, but his performance was very encouraging.

flip was alright too - again when he plays under control he can be valuable. he knows when he can drive to the lane and he's good at finishing. i don't know if there will be room for him once amir comes back and the 2nd unit can have hayes at the 3 and stuckey / afflalo at the 1 and 2 spots.

even though hayes was 6/17 i wasn't disappointed with his performance. mejia was a nice surprise - dude can ball. his height really helps him out with rebounding and defense.

overall i was impressed with the hustle of the pistons. they killed denver on the boards (especially on offense), played tough man-to-man defense (even if the overall team defense was suspect), and made smart plays. maxiell's one slam was setup by stuckey, who turned it over but was able to steal it right back. they're playing hard and not giving up and not taking plays off, and that's good news.

Sheed had something funny to say about Samb:
DETROIT 119, DENVER 110: Pistons' subs heat up court; Maxiell delivers double-double

I told you guys....

see, my VSL coverage is worth the hot dog and small soda that Roscoe pays me.

I wonder how many more times we'll hear the "I told you guys..." routine? Keep it up Low! We love ya!

First NBA game I've seen this season. I loved this game. It was so refreshing to see players other than the starters playing almost an entire game. I too realize that we were playing against the 2nd/3rd string of Denver, but I didn't care. I was so thrilled when we came back to the third quarter and all our bench guys were in the rotation and I could finally see them in action in extended minutes.

It's only one game but I like all our new guys. It's horrible to say but I just don't know how many more "Best Starting Four in the NBA" games I can watch at this point. It's one of the reasons I follow so many other teams, because I really enjoy watching the bench play.

As far as the game goes, I can never seem to remember specific plays, just overall impressions. One Huge Impression. Cheikh Samb. I love him (in a basketball way). I love the way he moves, he's not afraid to shoot a perimeter shot, he was aggressive in such a graceful way. Right after we got him didn't we have a Cheik Samb avatar that was a really bad picture? Anyway, he's filled out some and filled in some and those long arms grab those rebounds and block those shots like it's effortless. Wow. I hope we can hold on to him, I just have a feeling about him. Like he has a natural high basketball IQ for someone at his position.

Afflalo blew my mind. Didn't expect his game to be so well-rounded. Stuckey took that easy gentle drive right to the basket from way beyond the foul line. I mean maybe I can stand to watch Chauncey play a perimeter game if I can watch Stuckey drive to the basket regularly. Somehow it'll take the edge off for me.

Well as you can tell I'm all hyped up from the game. I watched it live and taped it and then watched it again. I just love that there are Pistons that I can look forward to watching. If only Flip will play them enough.

Another thing that is cool about the starters on the bench is wondering if any of these bench guys will make them a little worried about their playing time. Probably not on this team, but it's still fun to think about. Also, I'm so starstruck by the Best Starting Four. I love when the camera goes to the sidelines and I can see Chauncey, Rip, Tay, and Sheed talking to each other, cutting up, reacting to the game. I've gone to three Pistons games now and I'm too starstruck and chicken to get an autograph. Maybe this year. I would love to have a Sheed autograph.

I mean for me this was just a highly entertaining game all the way around. Even Flip seemed to have on a nicer suit (I do think that top button was too high but...it's a minor thing).

Kimmie, I just love your insights. Looking forward to the season getting started just to read your Kimpcaps, although Kimcasts sound better

Looks like Samb impressed most of us. Except for Lee, for some reason Lee does not like rookies. Rather see Flip Murry and Hunter play.

Ist time I saw Samb as well. He may have a shot on the team at some point during the season considering how short we are up front. Kind of surprised no one else brought up Maxiels 25 pts and 12 boards. Perhaps we expected something like that given the competition.

As i read this the second hand of my clock ticked towards the left and my cats got up on the counter to cook scrambled eggs and hash browns while harmonizing barbershop quartet style renditions of Anything Goes in mandarin.