TaS, you are a keen observer, and excellent at keeping it real with analysis. And while there is some truth to what you wrote, the man love is obvious. Amir does take some stupidly poor fouls. Yes, some are good, hard work, hustle fouls. But some, well, they are the sort of thing I expect from Kwame Brown.
He's a great backup PF. He's almost good enough to be a starting PF, if not with us, then with a lot of other teams. But he's in no way a Center, and it is ludicris to have him paired up against another team's starting 7 footer without another big man in the game to help. Max is at his best when he compliments a veteran big man who boxes out. He's similar to Amir in this respect. They are free form rebounders and that is why they are so good on the offensive boards. Also, most of their shot blocks are on other players' assignments. Miller more than doubled his average output tonight.
Oh I agree 100%. I think it is rediculous to have someone that is 6'7 be a center. I was simply trying to defend him against some of the posts on this thread as I think he still pulled his weight today even if being made to play out of position.
Oh man, I thought I was hiding it better. Let me clarify though. I'm not trying to pretend like he's playing clean basketball and getting screwed on calls or anything. I'm just saying that he is challenging virtually every shot in his wide vicinity. Any player on the team who played defense with that type of energy and aggression is going to pick up a lot of fouls. Just watch how many shots he affects in a game. He's freaking guys out. I'm absolutely sure that he can lay off the fouls by playing more conservative and smarter, but I'm really not sure that he should bother. Just play like this and foul out of 50% of the games. It might be worth it. Also, did you guys see how strong his muscles looked tonight? The way the sweat was dripping off... uh.. oh, time's up.
The reason why Kwame was not the answer is simple, Kwame was not rotating out to Miller on the pick and roll or when Miller plays the high post. Sac runs a high post offense with Miller and you really need an agile big on him to contest his outside shot. When Kwame was in the game Miller was canning open J's. But w/out a real BIG in there for us it cost on the boards. The reality is that whenever you play a team you're not going to take away everything. Oh, and as far as AA having an awful game, go look at K-Marts FG% (4-14) and when the game was close, and Sac REALLY needed a bucket, did AA's man EVER score?
This was not so perfect an example. Amir did not get a foul called him despite playing most of the first half of the game, and doing all that stuff you mention. And since he was never in any actual foul trouble until the last two minutes of the game, he played all out, no letting off the gas for a second, the whole game. The much more typical situation is when Amir gets into early foul trouble, gets his minutes limited, and plays with a bit less recklessness later in the game. (The kind of recklessness we love.)
Martin has 12 free throws and ended up with 20 points to Afflalo's 0. Afflalo fouled him 4 times and Herrmann picked up the other 2 when Martin drove by AA. As for Kwame, he was +17. Miller was on the floor for 23 minuts without Kwame and had his SEASON HIGH in both points and rebounds (edit: and free throw attempts and free throw makes). That's not a pick-your-poison situation, it was a bad mismatch.
The game was close enough. Close enough to make all of Stuckey's points very needed. I know its hard to take it all in, just how good he did tonight. Its hard to believe indeed still, thinking about it a few hours later. But Stuckey was clutch. Clutch. Clutch, and clutch again. All 13 4th quarter points were huge. And lost in the shuffle, sort of, AI hitting plenty of clutch shots as well. Yes, the game never got tied after we built a double digit lead in the 2nd half, but the way Stuck, and AI kept pouring in the shots, was really something special.
I wonder just how low Sactowns shooting percentage was on first shots in a possesion. They got a lot of 2nd chance points And made, what, someone mentioned it, about 33 points on free throws. Sactown did not make a first shot more than maybe 4 times per quarter, on average. Somebody was doing something right for sure.
I know, it's one of the reasons I'm still awake. I mean I'm contrasting just how much different we are with AI and Stuckey in the backcourt in the Clutch. I really love how when we need a bucket down the stretch, that bucket comes within 15 feet of the hoop. I mean the way AI and STuck get points in the paint down the stretch is simply beautiful. Wanna take away the paint, fine, they just nail 15'ers all night long which are like layups for those 2. MAN I'M PUMPED, we are on our way BABY!!!!
In all seriousness, I'm feeling like KB is taking an unfair amount of criticism from MC. Besides all the 3-second violations, he's exceeding my expectations this year and is better than most back up centers, especially defensively. He started in the L.A. game when we beat them down. Responding to the Stuck/AI comments... it is pretty cool to get 98 points without hitting a single 3-pointer. Not that there's anything wrong with 3's, but layups in the half court set are better.
i don't know if somebody mentioned that already, but the pistons did not take a technical foul during this game. I think the streak has stopped now that neither sheed nor rip were playing.
When was the last time the Pistons went without a 3-pointer and a technical in the same game? Probably before Sheed got here.
Funny while watching the game I did indeed notice that the whining and complaining was almost non-existent. I was hoping that Rip and Sheed were noticing this and see how much more dignified we looked without it.
I am glad that Stuckey hasn't adopted the demonstrative attitude towards the refs from Sheed/Rip. IMO, that does you in in the long run. With Stuckey, he'll bring it up to a ref if he thinks he should have gotten a call, but it's much more like a civilized conversation than just cussing away, yelling, and screaming.
I was very impressed with this win. 3 - count em 3 core guys out and we still win. Any other year that would have been an absolute disaster. Compounded by the fact that Sac was getting calls and only missed 1 free throw and that would have been a receipe for a loss. But Stucky, Prince, AI and Amir would not let that happen this game. I do believe we are a better team after that trade. Watching Stucky out there is the reason why he has to start this year. What about AI - started out cold as ice in the 1st half and really turned it around.
