The race for the most ping pong balls

Good post Laimbrane.

The only thing I'd disagree with is that Daye is good in clutch time. He's a 5-12 minute per game guy IF he can learn to just catch and shoot and not try to handle the ball at all.

Really the coach should ban Daye from dribbling the ball. You get the ball, you shoot. Don't pumpfake yourself into a turnover.

Where are you getting the 6.3 figure from? I'm pretty sure Prince's deal was 28/4, but I could be wrong.

I would assume that includes escalators (pay raises). In other words, he's making 6.3 this year, and probably something like 7.7 in year 4.

Thanks.

My assessment on Daye stems from a few big shots at the end of games last year, hitting 42% of his threes in clutch time, according to 82games.com (http://www.82games.com/1011/CSORT7.HTM). (He's the one that should have been shooting that three at the end of the NJ game, but Frank the Tank didn't draw it up that way.) I don't disagree with your assessment, and it seems that we're both of the opinion that he's -at best - a catch and shoot scorer. Ultimately I don't see a major minutes role for him, but that's not to say that there isn't a place, and a guy that can come in and have the confidence to hit big threes down the stretch should have a place on the team.

The last time they went to him in crunch time, he traveled so he couldn't even take it. That's likely why Frank didn't go to him. Plus, Daye had only played 11 minutes and was 0 for 3 - I don't fault Frank for opting to go another way.

Prince bricked a hook shot. Stuckey's groin hurts. Ben Gordon has some sort of injury. Knight shoots just after the buzzer. Jerebko has a slow release. Ben Wallace retired from that end of the floor. Charlie V went to mental Siberia. We don't have many options anymore.

With 5 seconds left and down by 2, our odds of getting the game to overtime is about 1 in 20 I would estimate.

True. Rip and Chauncey were the Pistons clutch players since 2002. Chauncey is long gone, Rip sat on our bench the last two seasons, and none of the young players have been able to step up.

It's going to be a long ride back to competiveness for Pistons Nation.

He's making $6.292 this year according to ESPN.
...I just wish he was making it on another team.

The other problem with playing Daye at crunch time is the fact that his defense has been sub-par.

If the Frankster had to sit players due to bad defensive play in crunch time, he'd have a tough time fielding a 5-man lineup.
And who's to say who plays well in crunch time and who doesn't?
We've had such a small sample of actual "crunch time" this year that it's hard to really know. Crunch time ceases to exist when you're getting housed by 17 points every night.

...As for garbage time, we have an adaquate enough sample size there for the most spot-on statistical analysis in the history of basketball.

Go Pistons!

I was making the assumption that if you can't play defense in regular time, then you can't play defense in crunch time.

I agree with that assumption.
What I get a kick out of is prior to the season, all we heard was that defense was going to be stressed by Frank.
...Then again, that might explain why Charlie hasn't played.

The "crunch time" for Pistons is the first 2 minutes of the game.

No doubt. I don't think you can just take a guy, say Ben Gordon, who is not known for his defense, and turn him into a defensive player in a couple weeks of preseason practice.
...Then again, that might explain why Ben hasn't played.

What are his crunch time 48 minute stats?

I think you can stress the **** out of defense, but it still won't make BG tall, or BW young, etc.

I do think they can learn to play better defense, but I (grudgingly) accept the fact that it may take some time.

I can give this a few weeks.............

Seems reasonable.