its more of the style of play than a mirage. If they are allowed to stay outside and shoot? they are good, with dre cleaning up behind them they are ok
It's a cheap version of the Magic team that Howard brought to the finals - a giant cleaning up in the middle and defends for the whole team, a couple of 3-point shooters and a midget PG.
Good analysis. But I was counting the shot they took away for the offensive foul. Even though it did not count, it still made Miami put that much more attention on Daye.
I've thought this. That Orlando team shot way better overall than this Pistons team, but over the past few games this team has dwarfed what they did. The only question, of course, is whether or not the Pistons can keep it up. Daye is shooting .667 from three-point land (on 15 shots), English, Prince, Bynum, Knight (and Drummond, lol) are all shooting above .400 from downtown, and CV is at .398. This team is shooting better from the three this year than that Orlando team did (.383 to .381), but with a much smaller sample size. If the first unit can get it's **** together and Frank is able to go from a slow-it-down, tempo-based offense to a fast-paced, shoot-the-lights-out-because-you-have-nothing-to-lose offense, then this team may well be unstoppable. Perhaps I should put down the Kool-Aid.
The team, NO. But when you take a quick PG who can shoot and drive past anybody, in a pick and roll with a center who can out jump everybody in the gym, and you spread the floor with deadly 3 point shooters.........that SET is unstoppable. Now, for us....the PG, SG, SF and PF are all streaky shooters who are sub par defenders.
what we call this is a workable rotation...most other teams in professional sport try to do this on a nightly basis. However they tend to make this their starting line up. We on the other hand preffer to play non shooters that cant spread the floor, with a short forward that cant rebound and a slow footed center that cant jump over the baseline. I have yet to see another team in the association that can match that unit for ineptitude
It's a mirage in that they will not continue to shoot above 70% as a unit. However, if they weren't down 20 points every game, maybe 45% would be adequate. Austin Daye's sample is really small. He's only attempted 15 threes this season, which only gets him to the top of the circle in a 3-point shooting contest. All we know at this point is that he would probably make it to the next round. He has taken at least 1 3-point in 8 separate games this year. 1-1 0-1 1-1 1-3 1-2 2-2 2-3 2-2 (.667 average) 6-7 in his last 3 games, which has been much needed by the team. Only 1 game this year where he attempted at least 1 and didn't convert. Obviously, nobody is a .667 shooter from deep. Judging by his stroke, I think that he could be over a .400 shooter since he's properly selective. If you exclude last year's performance from his lifetime NBA record, then he has shot 108-282 from outside the arc (.383). .305 the 1st year. .401 the 2nd year. .667 so far this year. Charlie's sample this season is much bigger and bordering on meaningful. In 21 separate games, he has attempted 88 treys and converted 35 of them (.398). He takes pretty insane shots while he's way outside the arc, drifting, covered, etc. He's also shooting at a very high volume of 8.7 threes per 36 min compared to 3.3 by Daye. When you sort the NBA by 3-point attempts per x minutes, you get some familiar Detroit names at the top. Here is how it look: Player/3pa-36/ 3p% 1) J. Meeks/ 9.0/ .373 2) Delfino/ 8.8/ .339 3) Anderson/ 8.7/ .402 4) Charlie V/ 8.7/ .398 5) Sheed W./ 8.4/ .324 .... Ben Gordon/ 7.2/ .419 (he's down a little further on the list) Fact is that Meeks, Anderson, and Charlie are all taking highly efficient shots when you weight for the 3 points they get when they make. Delfino is still being borderline efficient. Sheed is probably below that threshold, but they must feel like his floor spreading makes up for it. Ben Gordon has been awesome this year. He's basically hitting the exact same numbers that he hit in his last year with Chicago before Joe fell in love with him. Charlie's biggest drought of the season from 3-point land was an 0-7 stretch over 2 games. He also had back to back 0-2 games and an 0-5 game. That is normal though when you're attempting a lower percentage shot like the 3 and when you are often doing it in desperation. There are probably a few half court heaves in his stats too. The reason I'm focused so much on the 3-ball is that is pretty much what these guys do on offense. Charlie has 105 points from deep and 4 points from the FT line. Daye has 30 points from deep and 1 point from the FT line. Those ratios aren't ideal. Charlie is shooting .398 from 3-point land and .308 from the FT line (4-13). Go figure.
That is actually a brilliant comparison. That Magic team had the #1 defensive rating in the NBA that year (lowest points allowed per possession) with Nelson, Rashard Lewis, and Turkyglue getting huge minutes. Our bench unit is almost the best defensive bench with Bynum, Daye, and Villanueva out there. As long as we're going to have the poor man's version of that team, I know of a good candidate for a coach:
Missed the game as I need to bring the wife to the hospital for routine check up. Got into ESPN gamecast from the 3rd quarter onwards while waiting for the doctor. When the game was over, I almost jump up in the waiting room full of other patients. What a game to missed. Arrgghhh.... anyway, was really a good game. GO PISTONS.
hope all is well with the wife. Ive been in a room full of people when I was watching a game " secretly" on phone and had to play it off like I had teurettes.
As someone that both has Tourette's and is a Pistons fan, I find people are much more interested in the Tourette's than in the Pistons.
