Jason Maxiell ponders future with the Pistons | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com Maxiell was drafted 26th overall in 2005 ahead of Monte Ellis, David Lee and Brandon Bass but after Ike Diogu, Sean May and Charlie V. I really enjoyed Maxiell playing this year but I'll be damned if Joe does a 5yr $27 million extension.
There is no reason whatsoever to extend him over the summer. If Maxiel walks, that is $5 million that can be used much more wisely.
Frozen banana's for Charlie V. If he walks and they amnesty BG, they would have like 10-12 million to spend in FA - which could net us a really great role player, if not a starter.
6 points and 5 boards in 22 mins, hardley played the 2 years prior. What should that be worth? He is ok but not like we had some kind of a stellar front line. I think JJ was just that bad at PF. I would sign him if the price was right but probably not what his agent will be asking for. maybe 2-3 mil/yr which is far less than the 5 mil owed. Keep in mind that he may be deep on the bench in the coming years.
Max has some things working for him. 1. He's a good guy. 2. He's an undersized big and a bit of a tweener 3. He's a Piston and Joe hasn't ever met a Piston that he didn't want to overpay. ...4 yrs for 20 mil sounds about right.
I think Max would be good in the role Ben Wallace played this year when they needed someone to be physical and D up on the opposing bigs when they're running a layup drill.
Joe is Joe who always looks after his players as long as they had played hard and as far as he could in every way.
Maxiell has a short neck. He's only 6'5" w/o shoes mainly because of that. He has long arms and his standing reach is 8'11", which is much more meaningful than his height. He's also a great leaper. Monroe's height w/o shoes is 6'9.75" (almost 5 inches taller than Maxiell), but his standing reach is 9".5", so only 1.5 inches taller than Maxiell. Just to take it to an extreme level, if Maxiell had no neck or head, he would only be 5'7", but he would still dunk the same.
Going for bigs with short necks may be the strategy that changes the NBA like on-base percentage and slugging percentage revolutionized the MLB scouting. Conventional scouting methods probably undervalues players with low values in neck to tip of the head distance. That's some nice Billy Beane stuff from Joe.
GM's definitely need to ignore pure height. I'd look at standing reach, vertical, and the leg flexibility on the wall test.
