One of the NO assistant coaches said the Pistons were better without AI. It would be nice if he were to sign with the Heat or Hawks so DET could move up in the standings. Sheed wasn't playing last night when he got the T's?
Very interesting. AI and Sheed are just the sideshows. The real problems (Curry and Dumars) should be loving the fact that their incompetent is being overshadowed by AI, Rip and Sheed. Dumars has drafted poorly and misread his team. Curry is a joke. Anyone who says that we should release sheed is a joke. That would hurt our team to the tune of 13.5 million. That would make no sense.The fault starts at the top with Davidson, Wilson, Dumars, Curry, etc. The players deserve their share, but I think it has gone a little overboard. The entire team is struggling.
Good points. All this is a direct reflection on Dumars. Last I checked there was nothing in their contracts that says they have to play 40 MPG or not at all. I think at this stage in Sheeds career he would be better off the bench - and not play in crunch time most games. For AI? How can you not figure out a way to ulitlize his talent? Maybe starting SG with a rookie PG is not his thing.
So what is his thing? I don't think AI could play with AI. AI thinks he needs to have the ball in order to be effective and expects everyone else to adapt to him and play without the ball which is exactly what he can't do. Am I the only one that sees the irony there?
AI is good off-ball player. Its not his best game, but he can play it. Early 2000's AI used to cut towards and away from the basket through screens. AI just by his mere presence in the game, without even touching the ball turns the opposing defense attention towards him. Two AI on the same team? That would be very scary. This quote itself is enough proof how much clueless you are. The pistons tied the game in second quarter. They were without AI for third and 4th quarter, yet guess what?? They didnt manage to win. You blame AI for 8 minutes of play? Go play somewhere else kid.
Sheed has gotten old--that is the problem and no, Dumars couldn't do anything about it. Ben got old. Dice got old. Amir and Jmax play at the level of their draft picks. Amir a bit better than end of a second rounder. To put it another way, you can't expect to replace Ben and Sheed with Jmax and Amir. Lets not say how great our Pistons were and then say they are easy to replace. Those type of players are hard to come by. You know, Sheed has played in 7 conference finals. That is not an accident. But he cannot bring it much anymore. Its not the techs, it is the age. AI has not improved the Pistons and judging by the New Orleans game, his presence has made the offensive and defensive flows worse. The difference was quite remarkable. One game, one data point, yes, but it was pretty obvious. I am not into how good AI was or can be somewhere. He has not proved to be a fit here--not so far. This is not to detract from his career or his effort. The issue of small ball goes to the real issue of the poor mix of players. A major issue is the Pistons lack of three point threats post Billips which for some reason is rarely discussed. The issue of Curry falls in line after these other situations.
Ben wasn't even drafted. He sucked when he was 21. And despite all Sheed's frustrating tendancies, he's still our 2nd best +/- player this year. His body is young enough to still be effective, but he's gone AWOL.
The suck part? Maybe he didn't suck for being on a division II school, but if he would have been starting in the NBA at that age, forum members would have classified him as sucky. Ben didn't step foot on an NBA court until he was 22. That season he averaged 1.1 point and 1.7 rebounds per game in 34 games. His eFG was .348. So, my point is that I think it's totally reasonable to assume that an undrafted late bloomer could theoretically be replaced by a late drafted player.
TaS, I'm with you on Amir. It is frustrating watching these young guys, and the one thing I have to give him, is that he has all the stuff you can't teach. So it is entirely possible he gets it at some point. Of course, he needs to hit outside shots, or hit the weight room. Right now, he's too small to play inside, and he's not dangerous on the perimeter yet. I was watching a Rodman video Buckeyes posted yesterday, and had to look it up. Rodman came into the league at 25, and it took him a couple seasons to really establish himself. Amir has time. But only a couple more seasons. Time is starting to run down now. There are very few 5 or 6 year high school projects.
Is Amir ever going to be a starter? I think pairing him with a rookie coach and slowed down his development. This year has been a disaster for everyone especially Dumars. What do you do now?
My two cents on Amir. Reducing his minutes has had a negative impact on his development. Not that he would be an all-star by any stretch but the things he needs to work on are magnified with reduced playing time. What I mean is that AJ wants to be on the floor. He knows at this point with his current skills that the only way he can do that is hustling for rebounds and playing aggressive defense. He has been playing out of control and I think we can all agree on that. He tries to make plays that he can't or shouldn't be trying to make in order to have an effect on the game. By limiting his playing time he is trying harder and attempting to make more of these plays in shorter floor time to get back on the floor. I liken it to a puppy. You put them outside with no fence but put them on a leash. If you only let them off the leash every couple of days; what happens? They blast off to run and investigate every thing they couldn't get to while on the leash. The more they are allowed off the leash the less they will feel the need to run because they will know that they will be allowed off the leash again. The difference being that you can train the puppy to stick around and do what you want/need them to do if you stay with them and work with them. Curry lets AJ off the leash and then goes back in the house for a couple of cold ones only to come back, yell at the puppy for running away and putting him back on the leash for a couple more days. If you don't work with him and allow him to learn by doing; you are not helping him. I think he can be trained but his energy needs to be harnessed and directed in a positve direction and I don't think he is getting that.
Please do not step on TaS toes with the metaphors and analogies. I do not want to see this devolve into a Rip/AI situation between the two of you. One thing that stands out to me this season was a clip during the last BOS game where Curry was telling Amir to "run". He kept saying it, 'If we make a basket, run. Off a rebound, run." Why do they have to tell him that at this point in time? Same goes for Max and his D rebounding, what does it take or why does it take so long for them to understand their roles? I don't think either of these guys have added 1 thing to their games combined since they came into the L.
I actually read that and thought to myself, "damn, that's a good metaphor." I can appreciate a talented author when I see one. I just want to see the forum do well and it doesn't matter who gets the credit.
Yeah, but if we keep losing, don't turn this around and say you want to be the starter again. lol Amir needs to get cut. He's still too light in the pants.
