If we ever successfully come back from a 5 point deficit with less than 24 seconds by going for 2 and fouling, going for 2 and fouling, going for 2 and fouling, etc... just PM me and let me know it happened. Ahhh, the game. Pretty impressive that we were able to mount a comeback without $50M in salary on the court! But on D... who was guarding Dirk? (that's right, it doesn't matter because he's 7' tall, shoots fadeaways, and has Larry Bird-type touch). But what about Bass? Who decided to let Dampier get a series of wide open dunks? I'm not sure Dirk ever needs to be double teamed. Just let him shoot his 60% over 1 defender and try to clamp down on their other scrubs. But whatever. Again, we were missing $50M in personel tonight. No team wins when that is the case. Would have been quite a feat.
Against a weaker free throw shooting team, it was the right strategy. Against Dallas, craziness. We had to have the guts to launch some 3's - with some fresh rebounders in their to crash the O boards if we missed. Now, of course, if I were coaching the team, Tay would not have logged anywhere near 40 minutes, and would have a decent chance to make a clutch 3 at the end of the game. Stuckey should have come in for Bynum. Stuckey can hit 3's. On defense, you go right back to Bynum / Afflalo. (if it matters - most of the time, you are just fouling anyway and it matters little about the defensive matchups.) So there you go. Amir and JMAX around the basket to go for the O bound. Tay, Afflalo, Stuck, to shoot the 3. (and JMAX and Amir are both quick enough to set a pick to open up that 3 point shot and then still get back to the basket to contend for the board if its missed.)
You give Curry too much credit. AA will be back to DNP's in no time. Everybody knows the way to bother Dirk is to put a smaller quick guy that can annoy him, but we try to match him with a proto-typical big. Smart move. AI (no not that one LOL) just hit a three at the buzzer and PHI beat LAL. They are now one game up, have a tougher schedule, but are playing with tons of confidence.
Curry doesn't seem to have a problem saying that the players 'bodies are probably breaking down' when they miss games. I don't really remember another coach ever really saying that. Dyess was +4 and Bynum +8. Amir's numbers might not look like much, but if you take them at a per 48 minute clip he'd have 0 pts, 0 rebounds and 97 fouls. That's a whole lot of talent right there.
Oh by the way...with tonight's 33rd loss, we are now officially eliminated from the 50 win club. A club that we were perennial members of in this decade of coming up short... Philly beat LA at Staples tonight and are moving in the opposite direction of our Pistons, so our race for [strike]4th,[/strike] , [strike]5th[/strike], [strike]6th[/strike] is now more of can we hold on to 7th...
I say putrid because AA is probably option 1 out of that group and that is not good. I don't have a problem with him shooting.
Some broad points: Not a good Dallas team and they need to re-tool in the off season. Everyone now has the the perceptual advantage in knowing that this team needs a legitimate point guard. I have one in mind...no, it is not Sessions. If Stuckey has plans on sticking around this organization he needs to work on the following: Defense (no lateral quickness) Jump shot Conditioning Learn everything about today's offensive philosophies Go left and use more of the left hand Driving does not mean getting a head-of-steam (ala L.James) and using your body as a battering ram. Think how AI crosses the lane and confuses everyone. Curry: if you persist to make your point in brow-beating a lesson-learned into Amir when he fouls, then at least have the psychological insight to have an assistant coach smooth things over. I was an SOB as a coach, but I knew the value of having my assistant coaches counterpoint my deficiencies. Think like a parent: never let you child, after a nasty session, go to bed without a loving overture from you. You have some young players and no one knows how they all might develop. Yes, the opportunity when it presents itself, is the barking voice of coaching madras. Let us all not forget: coaches, that have little authority, must continually pound away on a keyboard that types wins. No great author is a hero to his editor. The great GMs let all bask-in-the-sun when wins advance everyone. On cloudy days they need to step out from their natural umbrellas and understand the relationships beneath the bright lights. In short, the days are long past when any of us can take anything for granted from the high, telescopic view, of mountain tops. This loss is nothing to be ashamed of.
I don't mind AA shooting either. But it sorta seems he feels guilty taking shots. Maybe he's a little imbalanced to the D...?
Stuckey will probably never flourish as a PG. I don't see it happening through the scope of his development.
I've never seen a bench this brutal. And no it's not just injuries. Kwame is our center, Bynum is our PG (and sadly our only real PG on the damn team), and we haven't had a capable back-up 3 in Lord knows how long. Oh and our backup SG doesn't feel comfortable taking many shots. Our shooting guard, imagine that. We're an average team with average talent. Where we have BBall IQ, we lack athleticism, and vice versa. We're above average at full strength.
That man can go get his foot stuck in a traintracks and get hit by an ongoing train... nah that's too harsh... only because he has kids.
The way things have progressed this season, I don't think he's a PG at all. For the rest of this season, we have three number 2's and no 1 that can pee [strike]beyond[/strike] even close to Rip's crazy assist flurry last week.
i fell asleep during the game...expected to see a blowout loss but hey, 37 points in the 4th and losing by 2 with 3 guys out? not too shabby i suppose.
He really should be coming along better by now. Starting to remind me of when Hunter was dubbed the next all-star PG by the Pistons in the early 90's. Although he went on to have a successfull career he was always a weak link at that spot on offense. Stucky on the other hand does not even have defense going for him.
The season is one body of work. The Pistons don't seem to be developing the right pieces to complete the work. We're not going to be ready for the playoffs. It didn't have to be this way.
