Starters combined for a (-40), while the bench combined for a (+50) for the game. The starters truly took the game off and the bench won it for us. Chauncey passing to Amir on the last meaningful play, a play that was designed to go to Tay, speaks volumes about the wonderful coaching done by Flip this game. Kudos to him for giving more minutes to Max and Amir, than to Dyess and Sheed.
39 minutes for Prince. If he were doing that every night I'd be right there with you, but if an NBA player can't play heavy minutes two nights in a row then something is wrong. I'm not sure the Pistons win last night without Prince in the entire second half. And if you have a chance to win a game you have to take it, and last night that meant a frontline of Tay, Max, and Amir. Nice job by the coaching staff finding a combination that could put the game away. A win on the books is worth more than a slightly better chance of winning the next night.
If we were talking about prince playing extended mins every night we should be concerend but were talking about a couple games here and there. Overall prince is getting tons of rest... not only is he averaging 3 mins less a game, the amount of games in which he's playing 40 mins or more is down just an insane amount. Here are the last 5 years of princes career (no 40 min games his rookie year) 3 reg season games of 40 plus mins no back to backs 24 reg season games of 40 plus mins including 3 sets of back to back 19 reg season games of 40 plus mins including 1 set of back to back 24 reg season games of 40 plus mins including 3 sets of back to back 11 reg season games of 40 plus mins including 1 set of back to back
It doesn't matter how much less he is playing when he is still being over(trained)played. It is a legitimate concern and whether or not he is overtrained to the tune of 1 minute or 5, he will still reap the consequences sooner or later. Flip can get what Tayshaun brings from Jarvis or hermann, he just needs to play them. One game here or there in the loss column is not as important as a fresh Tayshaun come payoff time.
To continue my previous post.... all our starters... our guards to a greater extent are not being pushed beyond the limit day in and day out has gone down greatly.... that magic 40 min in a game is really becoming a none issue and we should be fresh come play off time. found this even more interesting then the avg min per game.. our record is similar to 2 years ago when we were going for wins every night but were doing it with little to no over use of starters this time. Rip 08 7 games 0 b/b 07 23 games 1 b/b 06 19 games 0 b/b 05 35 games 6 b/b 04 20 game 3 b/b Bill 08 4 games 1 b/b 07 14 games 1 b/b 06 17 games 0 b/b 05 16 games 0 b/b 04 12 games 3 b/b Rasheed 08 3 games 0 b/b 07 9 games 0 b/b 06 16 games 0 b/b 05 13 games 0 b/b 04 21(2) games 0 b/b (games with us) starting center 08 0 games 0 b/b 07 not going to sort out who was the starting center per game sorry 06 9 games 1 b/b 05 17 games 3 b/b 04 31 games 4 b/b
In what dimension? Tay shoots as well as either one and finishes better than either and is probably a better defender than both combined. Add in PG skills...
Is there any video of that play by Amir? I missed that tending to my toddler. Nevermind found it on nba.com... Nice, they apparently were using that game as a scrimmage.
I don't mind seeing Tay get those minutes when he is actually playing well. That was fun to watch. Besides, he had those energy players in there doing all the dirty work.
i don't think tay got overplayed. he was playing well and we needed him. 39 mins one night isn't going to hurt. this was a great game. amir is doing all of the little things to help the team out - keeping numerous balls alive, playing solid defense...you just never think to yourself 'wow amir messed up that play.' when he first came back you could tell he wasn't using his athleticism because of the injury, but now all bets are off. he's stronger than he looks and plays solid defense, doesn't get caught out of position...just solid all around. when he comes into games we lock the opponent down and go on runs...and we're going to need this in the playoffs when our offense dries up. afflalo played great for his 4 minutes - made a smart pass to chauncey when he could've forced a shot, and the next play drove for a shot whe he could've kicked it back out. both were the right decision. maxiell looks to be getting his legs back, stuckey continues to gain experience, and dixon looks plenty serviceable. we are now at a point where i'd be comfortable with any of our 15 players on the floor...and i don't think there's another team in the league you could say that about.
I disagree with those that say playing AJ & Max at the end of the game was some gutsy move by Flip. To me it is just the other side of the coin. Heads = starters, tails = bench. It is all or nothing with Flip. He still hasn't shown that he can rotate guys in & out while playing everyone. I was glad that he got over his AJ/Max combo phobia. For those lamenting the fact that Dixon is playing over AA, I wouldn't worry. It is only temporary. Flip is cleverly working towards not playing him by using him at the 2. He looks like a little kid out there. The chances of him succeeding there are minimal. It is pretty clear that Flip will not play him at the point. The same goes for Herrrrrman. If Flip used him at the 3 and 4, he might have to work to play him. If he uses him solely as a 4 then he is behind too many guys to get PT and it is bad luck that he can't play. Plus he got 35 seconds last night and put up zeroes! Agree that this was a perfect game to get everyone in the 1st by giving the clearly listless starters an early rest. I ain't mad at the starters, lulls like this happen. Durant reminded me a little of early LeBron, G2 05 semi-final LeBron. He played into DET's hands by staying outside. When the game was pretty much over, he threw caution to the wind and drove. DET was helpless to stop him. Stuckey's best game in a while.
Why? Because of "the block"? He has been part of the problem when it comes to Detroit being one of the worst in the league at limiting dribble penetration, he has never been part of the solution, no matter how many times Ben and Rasheed made guys Tay has guarded think twice about driving the lane. And point guard skills? Please.When Tayshaun can bring it up against moderate pressure without turning his back to the defenders to protect the ball....we'll talk. That's one habit LB could never discourage Tay from sticking to.
Why live in the far distant past? If we were going back to the most recent playoffs we would have to put Tay in the background with his arms over his head....running away. Then and only then would we be summing up that matchup truthfully.
What? This doesn't make sense to me. The team was way more effective with AJ and Max out there last night then with either Sheed or Dice (or both) on the floor, so Flip stuck with what was working after finding the right combo, which is pretty much what we've always criticized him for NOT doing. How can that be fairly characterized as "just the other side of the coin"? Was he supposed to shuttle Sheed and Dice back in just to keep things fresh?
Did you notice that Flip put him in on defense and then subbed Jarvis back in when we got the ball back? I was thinking that too, except I can't really include Lindsey or Samb. They may do well or they may not, but I'd be hesitant to put them in a real game. I know Lindsey won't make a fool of himself, but he gambles on defense, sucks on O, and has a lot of rust right now. Samb could possibly make of a fool of himself or he could block 5 shots. We haven't seen enough to know for sure. One other thing. This was in reference to Flip Saunders' gameplan: That is why I don't like the concept of having a "pure" point guard who doesn't score. Good teams will cheat off of him and take away the passing. Flip's strategy was very good in this respect and I'm pleased to know that he actually details a strategy for the bench to have success too.
I think the criticisms of Flip is that he always went back to the starters regardless of if the bench played well. Yes, AJ and Max did well last night. To me though, Flip leaves people out who are going well for too long like it will never end. They can all play.
I guess Mark Jackson was a horrible PG then... Magic did that quite a bit as well Getting fairly irate with you at this point. You are saying he isn't a vastly superior defender than Hermann who moves laterally like a 4, and Hayes who is a god awful defender. Damn I hope this is a joke. Is that just as much because C$ is slower than most PG's and if you have one iota of strength you can body Rip off you and get to the rack at will?
