It's a shame Darko couldn't get it together in Detroit. The physical talent has always been there, but as Roscoe mentioned you've got to have it between the ears too.
To me +/- has always been an overrated and overused way to determine which players have been more effective. The only time I think it can actually show you something if there's a noticable difference (more than 5) in two players +/- which in this case I bolded the games.... So if you look at the bolded games, the NO game was when AI got hurt...the Mil game AI was bad in that game because Sessions was probably killing him that game...Now that I look at the whole thing if you take out the NO game in which AI got hurt and barely played Rip has a lower +/- since AI is giving 16 to rip that game Call it my bias towards AI but to me those 10 games dont say anymore about AI then they do Rip
I'm confused. I thought it was AI's team mates who were always letting him down and here you are saying the opposite.
Can you imagine if Darko knocked over the Bill D shrine at court side chasing a loose ball out of bounds?
In those 10 games coming off the bench, Rip was -24 when paired with AI and -7 when out there with his bench unit. I blame it on SB.
well this was a weird game from the start. my buddy and i pull into the Palace and he tells me to grab the tickets (he holds onto them during the season). i see they are for the march 22nd game against miami. he then realizes that this was not the game we were supposed to go to...it was opposite our package. so we end up deciding to go in and watch the game anyway; we got half-off and naturally, we sat in our exact same section, just one row behind our normal seats lol. the pistons had no energy early and it was too-little, too-late at the end. they continually shot themselves in the foot every time they got within 1 or took the lead by 1. stuckey is deferring to rip the same as he was to AI and that's not good. bynum played alright but has also been flip murray-esque lately. amir finally made a few decent plays. blah. another loss. and don't clamor for darko back after he played 1 decent half of basketball.
Look, this is real depressing so you might want to sit down. Since drafting Tayshaun Prince, Joe has struck out in the draft. That's 5 straight years of strikeouts. With the exception of Stuckey, whom I think the jury may have retired for deliberations on. That's why we are were we are today, and that is why Joe is so desperate to develop Stuck NOW.
After hearing Curry rant after the game: No Curry, its not the players. Its you. Sure we got out to a slow start - but the problem was defense, and you failed to correct anything by subbing early. Then we clawed back into the game in the 2nd quarter, but you, yes you, Mike Curry, decided to play JMAX and Amir, two fine power forwards, as a power forward / center pair. That was you. Bad choice, and the lead for Memphis shot up. This pairing has not worked all season long, and why would you think it would work against a true sized center like Darko? And again, we came back in the 2nd half. But who was the coach that forgot to rest his players, Rip and Tay, in the 2nd half. That would be the coach, Mike Curry. Mike Curry, the coach, messed this one up, and unfortunately, Mike Curry, the coach, has not one clue that he messed it up. Own up, or resign, admitting you don't know what the heck you are doing. The last thing we need is an inexperienced coach who knows virtually nothing - and does not even begin to understand how little he knows.
Dumars has invested on MC much and was very well aware how inexperienced his pet project was. Same with Amir.
Dumars was also very inexperienced when he got the Pistons GM job. Maybe he admired how Bill D saw potential in him and gave him a chance based on character and potential and he wants to be the kind of guy who sees potential in others and gives them chances? If you have that ability, you can really save a lot of dough by nabbing quality guys at low prices.
My bet is that JD hopes that in given time MC developes to a quality guy. I see no other reason why JD hired MC.
I would guess that you are right. And I personally wouldn't rule it out. There is a learning curve in coaching and MC might be making mistakes now that he won't make in the future. Handling personel, sticking to your guns, managing end-game situations... these are not easy when all eyes are on you and you don't have a track record to fall back on. I still like a lot of the things that MC was saying earlier in the year and I tend to like what he says more than what he does. What I'm hoping is that he really does have a good philosophy and that in the future he will have the confidence to enforce it more thoroughly and with more conviction.
I started off as an MC fan, but he lost me pretty quickly. I will allow though that he got thrown one serious curveball when Joe traded his starting point guard away - a curve he's never recovered from. Maybe if he had had time to prepare during camp it would have been a different season.
The NOH game needs to be discarded as AI only played 8 mins unless there is as way to find out what Rip's +/- was when AI left the game.
Tay was a lucky pick! He dropped because of how skinny he is. Poor Stuckey, he can't handle the chip on his shoulder it seems this season.
Because it distorts the stats, AI's +/- in that game wouldn't have been much different from the rest of the starters since he'd have played significant time with them (and from what you said before, with Rip). Whether they'd have been all dragged down to AI's level or everyone's would have gone up is a different question.
If you ignore that game and take the next game down the list, then you get the game against Boston where AI was -9 and Rip was +6.
