Just predictions on which players will play how many minutes, score so many points, get so many rebounds, etc on the Pistons squad. Now, me, I will at the end of the year look over what people wrote and report on how people did in just a couple of things. 1) For the period starting now until the first preseason game on October 11, predicting how many points each player will average in the upcoming season. I'll call this sight unseen predictions. Arbitrarily, I will use 20 games minimum to call an average legit. So if you guess 7 points a game for a certain player, and that player gets 7 points per game, but only plays in 19 games, I won't count your answer as right. To be right in that case, you have to state the player will not see 20 games of action. 2) Same for the period right after the last preseason game until the end of the first week of play in the regular season. Feel free to post all the predictions you want, and track them anyway you want. Just letting you know what exactly I am interested in grading at the end of the season.

Now my predictions: EC, won't play
Hunter, won't play
Dupree, won't play
Glynyiadakis, won't play
Carmona, won't play
CB 16 points per game
Rip 16 points per game
Tay 15 points per game
Ben 6 points per game
Sheed 12 points per game
Dyess 10 points per game
Arroyo 8 points per game
Delfino 8 points per game
Darko 5
Acker 3
Maxiell 3
Johnson 3
Davis 2
Evans 2

Team average 98 points per game. (Note, players won't play all 82 games so the above averages do not add up to 98)

This is something where there will be a much better gauge after the pre-season. Those Picking after the pre-season will have a huge advantage.

Max, I expect everyone to do both actually, if they wish. I sure will.

I had planned to make my predictions after the Pre-season. Then we will at least know who is making the team and who is not. But I just thought there would be less screeching of tires if we at least know who to predict for and who to forget.

Maybe I will try to scratch something together before, but it would be just that, scratching something together.

In fact, I had been wanting to wait until I can see the guys for myself at the open practice. I REALLY want to see that.

Anyone else going to try to go there?

I say lets get an idea of who followed the offseason stuff. The scouting reports. Summer league. The trends of the new coach. Heck, its only a prediction. And you can make more later as you get more data. In other words, give me something to read, please.

Points only
Ben 8
Sheed 16
Prince 16
Billups 16
Rip 23
Dyess 12
Darko 5
DAvis 2
Arroyo 6
Evans 4
Hunter 1

Acker, Johnson and Maxiel play less than 20 games. But all get some time in the Dev league.

Notes: Sheed takes over more of the post-scoring from Ben. Tay continues his offensive activity from the end of last-season when he was last healthy. Billups get more green lights but finds he enjoys setting up other players. Rip has a career season. Arroyo beats out Hunter. And Darko does well but does not play enough to make a dent beyond 5PPG or so.
And Dyess is in the running for 6th man of the year.

Total Points 98 against 92

I am looking for Ben to play huge now that we have more depth to back him up. I am looking for Sheed to show that he is a force in this league. I am looking for McDyss to pick up where he left off--he was a monster at the end to guard. I am hoping that Rip gets back to his catch and shoot. I want Tay to get back to his threes and perfect his drives/pull up shots. I am looking for Tay to get back to D with a back-up now. I am expecting Chauncey to be cut loose and become a real force in the NBA. Won't make any predictions on the bench--just cross my fingers. I hope that Evans is the defensive player that we need on the perimeter.

Ben- 9.3
Sheed- 13.8
Rip-19.1
Billups- 18.9
Tay- 15.9
Dyess- 9.8
Arroyo- 6.6
Evans- 6.9
Delfino- 6.1
Darko- 4.8
Davis- 2.3
Hunter- 2.3

I expect our scoring to go up dramatically this season from 93.3 to at least 98ppg. The increase in scoring will have only a marginal effect on defense. We won't allow more than 91ppg, so we should have a much better point differential than last year and not have as many close games.

Just overall number of minutes. A season has 82 x 5 x 48 = 19,680 minutes in it. Plust maybe 6 overtime games which is 6 x 5 x 5 = 150 more, so call it basically 20,000 player minutes for a season.

CB 2340
Rip 2340
Tay 2340
Ben 2340
Sheed 2340
Dyess 1404
Delfino 1200
Arroyo 1200
Darko 1000
Maxiell 750
Evans 750
Davis 700
Acker 700
AJ 600