You say that so confidently. Like it is a given that we will make the playoffs. We need to FIGHT to make the playoffs. I think we will but it is no foregone conclusion.
Aren't we about far enough into Jason Maxiell's underachieving career to stop calling him JMAX? At the very least, could we just lose the capslock on it? By the way you're overplaying Ben Wallace here @34 min. 26mpg for Rip might work while coming back from injury, but it won't last long. And BG playing under 30mpg aint gonna happen either. Trust me, you're gonna see Rip at the 3. And you're gonna see Jerebko's min way down and probably Bynum's as well. By the way, your "last 5 min" lineup leaves Rip on the bench? Never gonna happen. Either way, I'd recommend including some type of color coded graphic diagram with these lineup instructions before you fax them over to Kuester.
More dreaming about when all the players get back. Not that I don't like Summers, or have really seen enough of him yet to make any judgements, but I will leave him out of this one. My impressions, what little there are of Summers, is that he is a bit of a tweener. A bit undersized - though strong enough, to play power forward, but lacking a bit in speed to play small forward. However, sometimes slow movement simply comes from not knowing exactly where to go when. The guy can shoot. I would certainly like to see him play more to see if he can pick this game up. Here are two players per position. Enough so that we need never overplay any players again, once they are all healthy again. Stuckey, Bynum Rip, Gordon. Prince, JJ JMAX, CV Ben Wallace, Wilcox. Kwame and Summers for the 11th and 12 guys. But this leaves out Daye. Wow, great problem to have.
I think that rotation is going to be very close to what Q eventually uses. I just fear that he'll start CV in favor of Maxiell though. You could add Daye into the rotation if you use JJ as PF for limited minutes and slide Maxiell to C for when we go small. This (Max at the 5) actually worked pretty good in specific circumstances. The one thing that I am not sold on is Wilcox being ahead of Kwame in the rotation. It seems like he's just waiting for something.
Kwame looks good once in a while. Then he looks bad, and pointless. Like when someone throws a pass to him and it bounces off his finger tips. I mean perfect passes, thrown right to him. Not too hard. Just right. And drives to the basket where he just totally gives up on the play and tosses the ball in the general vincinity of the hoop. Like when he is the last guy back on fast break defense. And far back of the pack, arriving after the play is done. I am not saying Wilcox is all that great, but he can score in the post, on a classical post up where he is near the basket - in the paint already - and can score after receiving the basketball. I'd rather see that a lot, along with someone who is not too large to where he often can't keep up with the plays on defense. Perhaps the reason Wilcox is not playing has more to do with ineptness on the part of our guards to ever feed the post right. In any case, what I see, preseason and even in the regular season in the little it has been used, is the combination of Wilcox and JMAX working. I surely want to see more of it, more of Wilcox in particular, before I throw him under the bus. Generally, I do not like it when someone says a guy can't play, pointing to the coach not playing him as evidence. Or pointing to a sporadic appearance here and there and judging a guy on that. I want to see Wilcox play, on a regular basis for a prolonged time, and then I will make any judgements on the guy and welcome the next guys views too. In my opinion, Kwame has pretty much shown us what he has. I got no problem with him playing a bit to keep sharp, but I do have a problem with the coach sticking with him to the exclusion of giving Wilcox the same chance.
Isn't Daye ahead of Summers at this point? It seems Summers and Chucky would be in street clothes if everyone ever got healthy.
With CV out now, along with Gordon maybe a game or two, and Rip and Tay for a while, how about another rotation. First of all, the longest continually serving Pistons who are playing are JMAX and then Stuckey. At the moment, both are starting. Besides these two, the only healthy enough players to play are Atkins, Jerebko, Summers, Daye, JMAX, Wilcox, Kwame, Ben Wallace. Sorrily, the coach will probable start Atkins next game - unless of course maybe Gordon returns. Could happen. Heck, I will probably just hope upon hope Gordon returns and maybe we use a rotation something like this next game: Stuckey, Gordon, JJ, JMAX, and Ben Wallace start. Bench: Bynum, Daye, Summers, Wilcox, Kwame. Comments on each player: Stuckey can score, and Gordon can create his own shot. A good offensive rebounding front line will clean up a lot of woes as to offensive execution. Gordon. Get inside, draw defenders. If they are guarding him, guys like Ben W. can get the O board if you miss. Stuckey and Gordon. As they drive in, don't forget JJ can hit the open 3. Look for him. Make sure they are not cheating off him to make your life in the lane unpleasant. JJ. Do not once fail to shoot the ball when open. Last game he passed up one shot, and got no more ops like that. In game practice shooting is invaluable. JMAX. Keep working on the free throws. No, JMAX can't actually play starters minutes. His production falls way off if played more than 24 minutes per game regularly. Coach don't go there. Ben. Stay aggressive on scoring - but keep a cool head, staying within you abilities. No slop. Sets a bad example for Kwame, and he needs no encouragement in that direction. Bynum. Still injured. In the long run, if we keep both Bynum's and Stuckey's minutes down, like a 30 - 18 split - with each only ever playing the point - they can be an awesome pair of point guards for us. Maybe not prototypical, but whole lot of fun to watch. Daye. Keep looking for the screens to the middle. And keep attacking the basket. An occasional 3 is nice, especially if the other team is zoning - but what will win games for the most part is play as close in to the basket as possible. Learn to feed Wilcox in the post. You two should be practicing together constantly on this. Summers. This guy can make 3's. Unclog the middle for Wilcox a bit. Wilcox. Post up everytime. Shame them into getting the ball into the post. Kwame. The best advise I can give this guy is to pass the ball if nothing is there. Aggressiveness is good. But poor shots do not equate into aggressiveness. Obviously, dropping balls is a problem. I guess try checking your arm mechanics - are they loose and relaxed?
Stuckey needs to relax him arms when he's getting blocked to reduce the chance of elbow and shoulder injury.
Aiight I got a roattion for ya, I know I'm not as good as Lee (coming up with crazy trades is my thing), but I'll try anyway: Bynum / Stuckey / JJ / Max / BEN. My rationale, Stuckey looks a ton more comfortable and effective at the 2 with another PG running the offense. Now, as good as we played with Sorry-Butt-ChuckyAtkins at the 1, I'm confident Will is a more competent starting PG than Sorry-Butt-ChuckyAtkins. Off the bench we come with Gordon / Daye / CharlieV / Wilcox-or-Kwame; plenty of fire power right there. We'd have an excellent 3 guard rotation that would only have Stuckey playing the point for limited mins.
One thing I noticed that seems very lame is how we always have Jonas running up to the top of the circle to take a hand off from our PG. Every time, he just hands it right back to them and then runs away. Total waste of time.
Q is trying to compensate for the extra time that Tay takes to palm the ball out on the wing. JJ will stop doing this when Tay returns to the lineup.
It may be similar to what magicians do to distract you when they are implementing the sleight of hand. The other team laughs at the weird handoff routine... meanwhile Kwame Brown is popping out for a baseline jumper, almost unguarded.
Gee, I meant to address this in my last game report. It seemed lame to me that after JJ just hit 4 triples, that his team did not manage to get him any outside shot attempts. (He did forsake the one open shot he had, but mostly, they just were not trying to run plays for him to shoot.) PS)And yes, indeed I would rather see inside shots - but developing another offensive weapon should not be overlooked either. And same goes for Summers the other day hitting four triples and then not seeing any action. Man, you got to build - or at least try to build, on this kind of stuff.
I don't mind Jonas going to the perimeter if it is for a purpose. But there seems to be a play that we run (maybe with a few variations) that calls for Jonas to go get the ball and specifically not do anything offensive with it. It's almost like what bigs have to do with a guard loses their dribble... where they run to the guard and take possession for a sec so that they can give the guard his dribble back. Only in this case, the whole thing is planned out. It's not a big deal, but if I see it again, I'll try to mark the time so that you can watch it. Maybe it is a play where Tay would be a passing threat from that spot and JJ is just going through the motions when he's at the SF.
