Here's an article by my favorite Piston of the last 10 years: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120206/SPORTS0102/202060326/1127/rss13 Ben Wallace argues that you can't teach our guys defense, and until we have an elite defender, we won't be winning. Here's where High Pick comes in: Anthony Davis is averaging 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 4.9 blocks per game. He shoots .659 from the field (mostly on dunks and alley oops), but has a decent shot with some range. He shoots just over 70% on free throws.
We keep reverting back to the idea of staffing the team with "a bunch of D-Leaguers". Again, that's not what I meant to imply. I'm not advocating building a team with a bunch of Mad Ants so that we play the lottery for the next 3 years. All I said was that I'd rather pay a bunch of D-League dudes next to nothing to achieve the same results as we're currently getting from the likes of Gordon, Garbage, Tay and Stuckey. These 4 guys represent Joes last 4 "significant" FA signings. They're the 4 highest paid guys on our last place team and they're making a combined salary of $35 million per year. On average, we're getting 38 pts, 7 rebs and 9 assists per game from this group. On any given night, there will be one NBA player who will exceed these numbers ...BY HIMSELF! The Pistons 4 highest paid players can't even manage to average a combined double-double! The icing on the cake for me is that NONE of these guys even remotely tradeable. Joe has managed to lock up his "talent" with deals that other GMs find laughable. We are stuck with this pile of poop until maybe their expiring contracts can generate some interest from other teams. Like it or not, we've got at least two more seasons or Gordon, Villanueava and Prince to look forward to along with a minimum of three more seasons to see if Rod Stuckey can finally make the all-rookie team.
While CB for AI trade upset the chemisry, don't know whether those notion of "we've been there and won" hurt team's chemistry and banded people who wasn't belong to that group?
He's a shot-blocker who rarely gets into foul trouble. That's a talent. The thing is, will he be better than just the 2012 version of Marcus Camby. I say yes, but you never know.
If he becomes another Marcus Camby...........JACKPOT!!!! Go look at Camby's stats, they are nothing to sneeze at and a Camby'like player is the absolute perfect complement to Greg Monroe.
I totally agree. If you could clone a young Marcus Camby or a young Deke Mutumbo, Greg Monroe would have a guy to go to war with for the next 10 years.
The floor on Davis is 10/10/3. I'll take that. I'd still probably take Drummond over Davis, just on potential. Drummond should be a more athletic version of Andrew Bynum. Either way, like BDL said, we're good at both big spots for awhile. Then, we just need to find that 20 point scorer on the wing...
Next season.......IF we are able to draft a PF (Robinson or Sullinger) we either have to: (A) trade or amnesty Charlie Villanueva or (B) Start playing Jonas at the SF position and Max can play a Ben Wallace type role next year. PG: Knight / Stuckey SG: Stuckey / Gordon SF: Prince / Jonas PF: Robinson-or-Sullinger / CV (assuming we don't amnesty him C: Monroe / Maxiel Not Bad. But I'd rather see CV amnestied and we save that money and pursue a SF via free agency, preferably Jeff Greene PG: Knight / Stuckey SG: Stuckey / Gordon SF: Greene / Tay PF: Robinson-or-Sullinger / Jonas C: Monroe / Maxiel Now.........IF we draft a wing player (Lamb or MKG) we still need to trade or Amnesty CV and pursue a PF via free agency, of those available here's the order in those available are: Ryan Anderson/Micheal Beasley Kris Humphries Jason Thompson JJ Hickson In short, get rid of CV and use the money to fill a need we may have after the draft.
Taking his recent behavior into consideration, I fully expect Joe to bring back J-Max for another 4 year contract at around $9 mil per year. Joe should be on that Hoarders show.
Of the 14 players currently on the roster, 8 of them are players we have drafted. That's 57%. If you add WDR for whom Det is the 1st NBA team, and Big Ben, who is a re-sign, and Bynum who really became an NBA player at Detroit, that's 79%. Pretty high. Yeah, Joe's a hoarder.
Even if JMax doesn't produce in the future, I suppose you have to reward him for stringing together 6 straight games with exactly 6 points. It's a shame that he only scored 5 points last night. It's still one of those records in sports that will be hard to break.
Joe is probably seeing a little bit of Jeremy Lin is Max right now. Max is going to break out and take the NBA by storm. Joe doesn't want to be that team that let Max get away. So a 4 year deal he will get.
