Amir Johnson - Detroit Piston Tracker

There were certainly several games in which it was a blowout until the bench came in and it actually ended up as a close score. The game logs will reflect this.

I have looked thru every game log today. Not to mention I have watched every game twice anyway, and learned very little from reviewing the game logs just now. But here is the answer:

On December 1, and on December 4, Afflalo only played 3 minutes in the first half, but then played garbage time minutes to get to his 11 minutes. These are the only two games all season where anyone can say Afflalo only got to play 11 minutes because of garbage time in the 26 wins we have had with him playing 11 minutes or more.

In all other games where Afflalo played 11 minutes in a win for us, Afflalo played a minimum of 6 minutes in the first half.

So again I say, we are 26-4 where Afflalo has played 11 or more minutes. And blowouts had precious little to do with it.

In those 4 losses, Afflalo playing did not lose us the game.

The first loss was an early season one where Billups and Dyess were out. (No Stuckey yet either.)

The other 3 were Dallas, Orlando, and NY, some of our worse losses of the season, all from very poor play by our starters.

It's gotta happen more than a time or two for me to think twice about it. Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. Especially when you're only playing in two 5-6 minute stints. If this wasn't the exception to the rule, then yes, I would be concerned.

The thing that does concern me is that now with Theo here, Flip will be looking for every reason possible to keep Amir out of the rotation for the rest of the season.

Would love to see Sheed and Theo start and bring in Dice and Amir off the bench with Max as the 5th big. Just like AJ's game more then Max's at this point.

I'd prefer staring Amir and Sheed and bringing Dyess off the pine and splitting 4/5th big minutes between Max and the Rattler.

But I like the way you are thinking.

Agreed. Amir plays better with Sheed.

Although to be fair...

Who wouldn't?

As far as the D glass, Amir and Sheed are excellent together because Amir goes and gets the ball where as Sheed tends to just do an excellent job of blocking out.

When you get Amir and Max out there together, neither one is blocking out THEN going to get the ball regularly enough and you give up lots of needless 2nd shots.

Thats among about 100000000000000000 reasons the Amir/Sheed pairing is our best outside of Dyess/Sheed (Although it isn't right now as Dyess is strugglin)

Amir's worst game of the season last night... possibly excluding the @ Boston game.

He didn't do too many things wrong, he just didn't do the things that he ALMOST did right.... Right.

That 'turn down a dunk for a pitch out 3 to Sheed' made me want to hurl.

Amir was getting pushed out of the paint pretty easily last night, too. His lack of strength is certainly his biggest weakness right now.

...perhaps that he TOO is "leg dead".

Seems to be more of a positioning/getting your ass down thing than a raw strength thing... Because at times he seems to hold up VERY well strength wise often when you wouldn't expect it...

Are you saying that his biggest weakness is weakness?

It seems so obvious when you state it like that...

Amir did not even play 5 minutes. He got two rebounds and a block. On a 48 minute basis, thats 20 rebounds, 10 blocks. He was minus 2 for that 4:43 seconds. Not great. Not bad. The only way you can really characterize what he did - he hardly played.

Is it possible to play poorly or well in spite of what the stats say?

Small samples of stats are more worthless than just about anything.


He also turned a dunk into a missed 3, didn't block out, and got abused by a non offensive player in Reggie Evans.

I'm not saying take away his mins, in fact he should be gettin 15 mins of burn MINIMUM a night, but it was by far one of his worst games.

LOL. This is a great question.

There are so many positive things (setting picks, handling the ball, playing good D, boxing out so your teammate can get a rebound, etc.) that don't show up in the box score.

There are also so many negative things (not running the plays, not moving the ball, playing terrible defense, not communicating with teammates, etc.) that don't show up in the box score.

In the end, many people just use the stats that help their cause to justify their interests.