Away Orlando Magic Wednesday Nov 21 2012

Hindsight is a cruel mistress, but here goes anyway.....Pistons win by 12. Kravtsov gets his first minutes in GT.

It seems like the only way Slava will get any burn is if CV followed Stuckey's example and went to the coach and asked to give his spot to Slava.

No streak for us. Orlando by 7.

It depends on only one thing. Does the coach want the win more than to carry on his agenda, which puts winning way second to trying to live in his fantasy land on certain subjects. Last game, we won because coach only indulged in his fantasy of JJ being a power forward for 10 minutes. Better, but still, I would rather have a coach live in reality the full 48. Other fantasies he is fighting, from last game, thinking Maggette can guard a small forward. Thinking that Bynum at point, with Stuckey, who can't shoot, as the guard combo will ever work. Yes, in his fantasy world, perhaps Bynum can be the shooter while Stuckey runs the point. But in the real world, if Stuckey can run the point - you got guys like Middleton and English who could play the two instead of Bynum. You know, like guys with some height for defense. Again, we will win or lose, strictly based on how long coach wants to stay in fantasy land vs. reality.

With Stuckey on the court this year we are -74 in 315 minutes.
With him on the bench, we are +8 in 213 minutes.

Stuckey played almost exclusively at SG last year and had the best stats on the team (tops in +/-, net production vs opponent, simple rating, etc).

So I wouldn't blame the coach for trying to keep him in that position after years of failing at the point.

Stuckey played a whole lot with Knight, and they did switch roles a lot. But yes, I will blame coach for trying to make something happen that will never work, especially when he has many other better options.

It worked last year. Stuckey led the team in points and assists per minute with a PER that was 2nd only to Monroe. Stuckey was also efficient with a TS% only behind Monroe.

He's playing horribly this year so far with the same setup.

Exactly. Wait... what?!

If we lose to them again, we should start tanking.

If we lose to them again... we are tanking :P

I'm going to be watching Glen Davis. I know Mogilny thought a Davis for Greg Monroe trade would be good.

The guard play is just not up to NBA standards. Knight would not start on any other NBA team. He is just not ready. Bynum would not make many NBA rosters and Stuckey is Stuckey. That third quarter saw the ball fumbling around, passes overthrown, guards that can't shoot or get to the line or make a steal--anything to get on the board.

The Piston offense is often pass the ball back and forth with Knight and Monroe to eventually dump it off to jump shooting Maxiel or give it to Tay with about 7 seconds left.

At this point start Stuckey at guard. Play him to get value and trade him. I suppose the organization will not bring a guard in to win games via a trade and instead go for a guard or a scorer in the draft. But something will have to be done by next year.

I never really understood Magette's game when I watched him a lot as a Clipper. The Pistons need a shooter and not a slasher.

We have at least 1 shooter stymied on the bench in english, he has probably the purest shot on the team. and he actually tries on defense..

Agenda's. Loss. And in the post game interview, Frank was asked if changes were needed if the losses continued. What did Frank reply? "He did make changes, he brought in a whole new unit when the first unit was not getting it done." Now wait, is that what the reporter asked? Nope. The reporter was talking about changes in who gets to play and who plays with who. But Frank dodged this obvious question.

What did Frank do positive in this game. One, he did play Monroe and Drummond together for 4 minutes to end the 1st quarter. Nice, but it was not planned. JMAX got into some foul trouble, so Drummond came in. This is a step up for Frank, who in the past has brought JJ in instead. You know, the guy who can't play NBA power forward. So that is a step in the right direction. But as he brough Drummond in, he sat our most energetic player, Singler, and brought in Stuckey as the shooting guard who of course can't do what? Can't shoot. And so should not be playing shooting guard. This unit held their own, but with no shooting guard, a team generally does not funtion all that well and this unit was no exception.

More positive from Frank. A couple of times, he had Stuckey out there as the point guard. Maybe he is beginning to understand how much not Bynum is a point guard. And hopefully he is looking at other options. Note, we got things in order much of last season with Bynum removed from the rotation and Struckey being the backup point. This crazy experiment trying to make Bynum a permanent fixture in the rotation has got to end - Bynum does not belong in the NBA.

Next, altough still too late really, the bench got emptied at the 4 minute mark. Should have been more like 6 to 8 minutes. What were our starters all doing out there mid-4th after the game was lost?

Now the bad, and there is plenty of that. But first, our starting unit began the game quite well, up 17-8 early. From there, though coach made his usual mistakes. One, Stuckey came in as the shooting guard, which he is not. Bynum came in at point later, which he is not. With Stuckey and Bynum, Maggette came in at small forward, which he is not. With them came in JJ at power forward, which he is not. Drummond was at center, which he is. Only thing right about that unit.

And the real bad. Due to coach's agenda being far more important than winning, he won't change anything, even if we go on a 0-21 run. We start out bad in the 3rd. Quick time out. Good. No changes. Ok, but the hook should have been short at that point. But no changes, not a one, until we are down 20. And does he change anything on the starting unit? No. He yanks the whole unit rather than attempt to change anything. And these subs he puts in wholesale. The same group that was worthless in the 1st half. No changes at all.

I think Frank is basically saying. You want change? Fire me. Otherwise, I am very content with losing every game, as long as I can follow my agenda.

Interesting that English was dressed. I did not notice who was not. Perhaps Middleton. Perhaps coach thinks that since he let Middleton play a few minutes of garbage time its only fair that English be given a bit of GT as well.

Drummond made a nice move from the right post, dribbling under the basket and doing a reverse layup. On one sequence, we had Monroe and Drummond in there (end of 1st.) Of course, their defense actually has to guard our bigs now, so Knight finds himself really free and nails a 3 from a pass out from Monroe. This kind of thing should be happening all game long. And imagine if English was part of that unit instead of Stuckey. An actualy shooting guard for our talented bigs to kick out too. Apparently we fans will have to wait for a coaching change, or even a GM change, before us fans can be treated to regular doses of , sound, basic, sensible basketball like that.

When the Pistons stopped scoring in the 3rd...after a while I just was hoping they would just go the whole quarter with 0 points. At least that would have interesting.

It just not the same setup. This year, coach has gone 100% with Stuckey at shooting guard, and no other role.

In contrast, Stuckey started out as out starting point guard last year, continued to play that role often even if on the floor with Knight, and played backup point much of midseason and on.

I agree with the write up lee, Not sure if Frank is askin for the axe by refusing to alter his lineups but I didnt listen to the interview so you may be right. I really dont see why he doesnt want to get english on the floor to give the opponents someone to keep them honest on the perimeter. And Im sure there wil be people saying that players play and players let the magic blow them out....partly true, but why does it take soooooo long for our coach to make adjustments...and calling a timeout isnt an adjustment.
The magic saw that Monroe was the only player hurting them and they did exactly what a well coached team should do, they denied him the ball and collapsed away from the perimeter to eliminate any drives by him or our guards...they basically said " screw you beat us from outside" and guess what? we dont have shooters on the floor, so we drove into traffic and either commited offensive fouls, or we forced bad shots in close. Either way we were 1 and done because they collapsed and had every rebound. Then on the offensive end they knew we had no interior and drove and kicked to an always open man who shot and hit it. JJ reddick and Moore and Afflalo kept our guards out close because " they can shoot" and they drove by them repeatedly. Good for Jaque Vaughn, he showed he belongs as a head coach.