Are Rip And Tay Too Far In The Background

while detroit is normally pretty good at keeping stuff silent, if there was a deal in the works at one point chances are somebody on the other side or somewhere in the middle would have leaked it by now.

Tough situation to ponder. The best teams in the league are the teams where everybody has a defined role in which they thrive in. On this team, Rip is suppossed to start with super-sub ben coming off the bench to light it up, a really good formula for success IMO. But do you stop whats been started since Rip went out? Bringing Rip off the bench will make it difficult to trade him too...again, tough decisions for a coach to have to make, glad I don't have to do it.

start Rip - decision over

Tay's back issues started in last year's playoffs... makes you wonder if the USA team was a good idea.

He's a walking red flag now.

Word is that Sac & N.O. are talking about a Kenny Thomas (expiring) for Okafor (owed 62M) trade.
Joe should get in on this action... the timing of Tay's injury might mean the difference of obtaining a franchise center.

I hope not, I really think he's our most expendable and alluring trade asset.

Amen Merc, I've been a big Kenny Thomas fan for years now! Is it possible that NO would take Tay and Kwame, for Oak and Posey, Kwame expires, Tay is the SF they need and they also get rid of Poseys contract, Posey is a decent backup forward who does a decent job of defending PF's in small ball lineups.

I agree, sports media outlets are WAY too focused on the likes of LeBron, Kobe, The Celtics, The Lakers, and The Summer of 2010.

Welcome GFactor

Wlll imagine that will you;

In today's edition of the Detroit Free Press, Vince Ellis' column has Rip responding to the writers question regarding the Pistons progress and/or lack thereof.

Personally, I really didn't think that Rips's assessment of the team was all that positive, it was more like, the team won't go that far until he and Tay returns to the lineup.

Hopefully I am not reading more into his comments, however, it appeared to me that he looked at the negatives and really did not give the current roster any props.

The article also explained why Tayshaun is not traveling with the team.

Someone must be reading PistonForum.com.

You've got to be reasonable, the media got this info out in 2-3 weeks. That's pretty good if they're using the Pony Express or the Gutenberg Press.

Where did you see this about his back? I haven't seen anything about how he hurt it.

I'm no doctor, but I can't imagine that walking around with a red flag is good for his back. He should be resting.

He was having problems with his back in the Cleveland series
that's when they decided to insert the red flag in his back...
it's unfortunate that Arnie is color blind... as he was supposed to use a white flag.

Is Tay in Play?

Ooops..looks like I wandered into the conspiracy theory thread.

Looks like we're about a week away from turning Tay into the new Tracy McGrady. It's a ruptured disc folks. The last thing you should be doing with a ruptured disc is;

A. Driving an old Allis Chalmer farm tractor over a rocky field.
B. Slipping into your mask, tights and cape to wrestle as "Ta-Matodor"
C. Sitting for prolonged times on hard wooden benches, airplane
seats and bus seats
D. Playing 36 rounds of golf with Bill Lambieer at $20 a hole

Hmmm. Pretty tough multiple choice question.

I guess he's a slacker? That Joe Dumars is deliberately holding him out and driving his value down for a big trade by using the ruptured disc story as cover?

Maybe it's me, but I'm pretty sure the days of dragging your injured players around to prove their loyalty went the way of the dinosaur as teams started beefing up their training and medical rosters.

Back in the 80's, Mahorn had a ruptured disc and he'd lie down on the floor by the bench on his stomach waiting for his number to be called. Sometimes for therapy you'd see the 7'5, 145 lb Chuck Nevitt walking back and forth along his spine. Every once in a while you'd hear Mahorn holler out, "dance you skinny white boy! dance!"..

I think those days are over.

By the by, Nevitt's nickname in the late 80's when he was with the Pistons?

The "Human Victory Cigar"

Let's clear up some fallacies about the old ruptered disc thing.

First off, I also suffered from a ruptered disc, as well as my father and sister.

Number one, it depends on what disc is actually ruptered, the vertebrae is a very complicated system.

If it is in the neck area, then sitting doesn't cause pain. Mine was in the L-5 section.

Through exercise, rest, physical therapy more exercise and more rest, I was much, much better. It took me about 3-4 months of PT, chiropractic and accupuncture. I rarely experience any sysmptoms today.

It's not necessarily true that you can't sit when you have a ruptured disc, again, it depends on where the rupture is located as well as, the individual.

I run, lift weights and pretty much do everything that I did in the past, however, i make sure it is done in moderation and I am defintely cognizant of how I lift and avoid excessive standing.

What's really, really weird about the Tayshaun issue is; I can almost guarantee that this situation did not happen suddenly, it's no way unless somebody was shooting him up with epiderals and cortisone, or he has a helluva tolerance for pain. Most time discs become herniated first, letting you know that something big is coming down the pipe.

I don't believe for a minute that Tay is faking an injury especially with his iron man status, however, I do question the timing.

Hey Gman, I know that you have serious Man-Love for Tay, but it's all good, he'll be back.

I can appreciate the perceptiveness of this comment. It is rather, semi-nasty. You will not make friends.

Does this mean you are not quite sure?

I just hope Tay's ok, I don't wish pain on anybody outside of terrorists, rapist, pedophiles, and child abusers. I really hope he's going to be OK and come up with a clean bill of health, because I really, really, really want Joe to trade him, we're a backup PF/C (Kurt Thomas, Marcus Camby type player) away from really making some noise.

And you know what's really screwed up about the aforementioned, I really thought Wilcox could be that player, but there's 2 Wilcox's, Good Wilcox and Bad Wilcox. Bad Wilcox ain't worth 2 dead flies.

Hence Ol' KGREG suggests this trade, when or if Tay heals up.

RealGM: Trade Checker

we could make a wink/wink deal to release Butler for all I care. Tay gets to go home to LA and we get to drop $15M off the books at the end of the season, not that it would help. If the cap drops, that's probably only about $10M in cap space, you gotta ink Will (that'll eat up $4/$5M), BEN deserves a second year ($3/$4M), we'll have a 1st rounder to ink, and maybe enough to re-up Kwame, or Camby or neither. But it will put us in a better cap flexibility position moving forward, so we can use the MLE, or re-up Stuckey next summer.

Any realistic chance of getting Kaman?

KGreg you may be joking, however, it is a high likelihood that Joe will make a similar move before the trade deadline.