He deserves to be upset. He makes a bad pass, gets benched, and then watches the starters throw them into the stands. If you take that attitude, you have to apply it to the whole team.
and that is why the coach is a buffoon. He is talkin the talk about earning minutes and defense first and blah blah blah blah...then the young fellas ( dre, english) go out there and perform better than their starting counterparts most times, and as soon as they make a mistake...or even if they dont in some cases, they get yanked and have to sit there wondering why their mistake ( or lack of) gets them yanked and their replacement is allowed to make the same mistake...or a slew of new ones and gets to carry on playing while the team nosedives. If this crap continues much longer ( 10 games) I will be praying for Drum to get out of town as quick as he can.
I was still on edge with the 11 point lead at the end of three. Based on the scoring drought from the previous game where they ,went ten minutes without scoring , I would have only been comfortable with that lead with less than 90 seconds left in the game.
Agree coach. They still don't have a "go to" man either on this team. Even if he can't make the shot, just need that person that can at least penetrate and get to the hoop for free throws even if he doesn't have the superstar label on him. Look how many times Westbrook got to line in that critical part of 4th quarter just to get them back in the game. We have not had that guy since Mr. big shot left.....
This flies in the face of our championship years, where we really had no superstars. Rather, we had, in all three cases, a team with lots of guys who score. So far, the coach has not tried to put a unit out there that can cover the fundamentals, interior defense, perimeter defense, rebounding, inside offense, outside shooting, ball handling, and outside shooting. But we have the guys who can make up such a unit. Sure, several them are rookies, and have not been in the league a whole lot of time. Monroe. 3rd year. Knight. 2nd year. English, Drummond, Singler, all rookies. You put these guys out there, you got Knight handling the ball with English moving well as the off guard to help the offense flow. You got English and Singler to knock down the outside shot. You got the tandem of Monroe and Drummond making interior passes to each other while all three of the other guys out there with these two can cut to the basket and finish well. On defense, Knight has lots of length to go with enough height and speed while English seems to very sound in the defense department. You got around Monroe - Drummond swats your shot away. And with Monroe behind him - a whole lot better than JJ behind him, and JMAX too - Drummond does not have to press on defense. He only needs to do enough to hold the fort until Monroe gets into position to help. Then you bring in a quality backup point in Stuckey who can barrel inside all night long - in the minutes that he is out there - working on one thing primarily - getting their front line guys in foul trouble, making it even easier for Monroe and Drummond to score when the starters return. And when Singler takes a break, you got JJ to go out there and continue the hustle contribution from the small forward spot. Guys like JMAX and Kravtsov play some, as the foul situation demands, but you end up with a whole lot of Monroe & Drummond, the new "Twin Towers" up front. Probably a sight more than the other team wants to see. You add in a young promising player like Daye to the small forward spot, allowing Singler to go to shooting guard to minimize the combination of Knight and Daye playing at the same time - cause you really never want to have two unsteady shooting guards in the backcourt at the same time.
Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars were not superstars? These guys are enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts. When the game was on the line, they could either create their own shot or create a double-team and kick to an open player. Billups could close out a game, too. I mean, even a guy like Corliss Williamson could post up his defender during crunch time. If you didn't double him, he would just continue to score. The current Pistons have no player that can create a double-team. Teams can crank up their defense and Detroit has no answer.
No, Dumars was by no means considered a superstar in 89 or 90. And while we here in Michigan thought the world of Thomas, it was guys like Stockton who people in the rest of NBA land thought of as superstars. Thomas was as close as we got to a superstar, although of course if Aguirre had not had to tone down his offense here in Detroit he too could have been counted as a superstar. Jordan was a superstar at the time, for instance. A guy who could score at will. In contrast, for us, sometimes it was the Microwave who had to heat up for us to win a game. Or one of several other players not named Thomas.
Coach sounded really sad post game, taking at least some of the blame for the loss. And seriously, against a lesser team this one probably would have been a win. The fourth quarter collapses (a staple from early last year) are really concerning though. It's how the game got out of hand in both Houston games and against OKC.
When Drummond has played well he's been among the teams best players. When he hasn't played well he seems like all the Pistons. He's not running the wrong way down the court or going into the locker room for halftime at the end of the first quarter. What is it exactly that they're protecting him from? His confidence won't suffer from playing well which he has. He should be in the macro discussion for Rookie of the Year. Frank is hindering the team by getting caught up in positions or definitions when it comes to Monroe and Drummond. Drummond can move. Let him!
Dumars averaged over 17 ppg in 89 and 90. He was the Finals MVP in 89. He went to the All-Star game in 90. He was 1st team NBA All Defense in 89 and 90. He shot over 50% from the field in 89 and 90% from the FT line in 90. What do you think it takes to be a superstar? I'm not talking about what the media or other people think. I'm talking about getting it done on the floor and helping to lead your team to consecutive world championships.
Maybe Drummond's limited minutes is an attempt to protect him from premature injuries as his body is building up. Granted injuries can even happen in your sleep, but they're more likely to happen if you're a young kid who doesn't really know how everything works and are logging 30+ minutes a game. The worst thing that can happen to Drummond is an injury that'll affect his career. I'm just speculating here of course. But, the alternative is Lawrence Frank is a complete idiot. I'll keep the pink glasses of optimism on for a while longer.
The dude is 19. When I was 19, you could run me over with a truck and I wouldn't have got hurt. There's always been a culture in Detroit where young players are brought along at a snail's pace. It's one of the reasons why we have 307 Darko threads and have never had a rookie start game 1 of 82. It's the reason that lee has to buy a new keyboard every season. Heck, even Greg freaking Monroe got the "bring'em along slowly" treatment last year until he went out and smacked Frank in the face with a bunch of double double games. Rod Stuckey has a FG% of .280 this year. Why isn't Frank worried about damaging Rodney's fragile psyche???!!!??? Walt, I'm gonna go with your theory of "Frank is a complete idiot". ...Only, It's not just Frank, it's been every Piston coach since Chuck Daly. Daly looked at his loaded roster of vets and still took a leap of faith by giving a couple rooks named Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman plenty of minutes. ...hmmm, How did THAT work out? It's time to unleash some of the young energy on this team. The Pistons are going nowhere fast without it. Is Kenny English the next Joe D? ...time to find out! Is Andre Drummond boom or bust? ...let's see him in action so we know what we got! Is Kyle Singler a glue guy off the bench or an NBA starter? ...who knows as long as Tay is in his way! ...And I could CARE LESS that Stuckey, JMax and Tay are making a combined $21 million this year. (actually I DO care and it really pisses me off!)
I guess the alternative interpretation is that the bring-him-slowly approach worked which is why he started playing well.
So Greg Monroe coming off of the bench behind Charlie Villanueva was a good idea? Props to Frank for learning from his mistake.
The organization is deluded in thinking it has a competative basketball team. Its like Fox news on election night. Knight isn't that good. I like his improvement and I like his competativeness but theres a lot left to improve upon before he's cracks the top 15 PGs. Monroe is not that good. He's a better than average peice on a good team. Kinda like a Rasheed Wallace. But he's not the franchise player the organization makes him out to be. Yet. The Pistons CAN have a competative team in the future. Thats a huge difference. Instead of trying to be more competative, the emphasis should be on how to get competative. We cannot field the same boring line up with the same boring team chemistry and hope that small gains in the off season will turn things around.
