I would call it Stealth Taynking. I believe he said "rats!" after he missed it, completely selling the fake disappointment to the 200 Piston fans watching on television.
I don't want to hyjack this thread (tanking thread) but as I said before, we'll have to agree to disagree. BTW; Stuckey makes $8.5 mil per year while Prince makes $6.3 per year. ...that's a difference of about 1 Javale McGee or 3 Troy Murphy's.
"Of course we still care and aim to win, it's just tough with some unexpected unfortunate situations. But we still play to win." - Charlie Villanueva, via Twitter.
By "unexpected unfortunate situations" I'm assuming that he's referring to all of the family matters and sleep related orthopedic injuries that have plagued the team this year. BTW; "We Still Play to Win" is yet another damn fine slogan for this year's squad.
In fairness to Chuck V, he has no idea what "playing to win" looks like. You can understand his confusion.
Joe Dumars' A Series of Unfortunate Events. A tale of two draft picks who begin their precipitous descent by sliding out of their projected range into the clutches of the nefariously inept Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons. Phantom injuries decimate the dubious talent pool and everyone left is played out of position by a clueless coach who hamstrings the team by not starting its 2nd round big man. The unfortunate event pile up as players attend family matters or get nights off to catch up with old classmates. It all culminates in a heartbreak loss to a team that dresses 8 players to lose gracefully to the Pistons yet still manage to win. Finally, a obscure and esoteric loophole is found whereby Greg Monroe signed his contract...with his left hand!
He needs to earn his PT and he didn't show the coach much in that stint I guess. He must be replaying it constantly in his mind... wishing he would have made that pass or taken that shot.
That's right. He's haunted by those six minutes. Over and over again, he relives those six minutes. He thrashes in his sleep, screaming, "Swing the ball!", and, "Close out on the shooter!". His nights are hellish episodes of violent regret. That's how he hurt his ankle. It's not that Chuck V doesn't care about winning. He just cares too much.
Well, Tay's contract may be the more tradeable one. So, from a purely contractual perspective, yes, the Prince signing is the better one. However, when you look at what each player brings to the table, Stuckey is by far more useful at this point in time. Tay's play is killing us and really blocking the development of the younger guys. On the other hand, Stuckey's play actually fits in more with the rest of the youngsters. Considering Joe won't trade away either of those guys, I don't like the Prince signing at all.
To re-state my point, I wish Tay was a Clipper and Stuck played in Portland and we had 2 or 3 other guys using that cap space. ...but I see what you're saying.
Prince isn't happy in Detroit as far as I can see. I would be completely unsurprised if he asks for a trade when anklebreaker comes back.
While I have no problem believing that CV is constantly reliving those scant minutes, I do have some difficulty imagining him screaming "Close out on the shooter!". I mean, why start now?
So after two dozen games, our belief that the Pistons are terrible has been confirmed. As bad as they are defensively, they're even more anemic offensively. Clearly they have a lot of holes to fill before they become a good team. The question is, how do they get there the quickest? Long-term, Greg Monroe is the only guy that we can be sure can be a quality contributor on a championship-level team, where his strengths outweigh his weaknesses (lacks quickness and is a mediocre defensive player). Each of the other young guys at the moment have potential and give us reason to believe that they can contribute, but are saddled with significant weaknesses with little time to really improve in this shortened and condensed season. 1) Jerebko has an incredible motor, great range for a 6'10" player, and is a good offensive rebounder. The problem is that his ceiling now appears to be a backup SF/PF tweener that would look really good coming off the bench and stretching the court, but is hopelessly overmatched as a starting PF. 2) Knight is quick, has a good shot from a surprising range and is clearly a hard worker with a great deal of potential, but has not as of yet developed any sort of starting PG instincts and is a defensive liability. 3) Daye is the type of guy that you want to come in and shoot threes, that can put up the occasional 20 point game and is good in the clutch, but is not anywhere near instinctive enough offensively or defensively to be anything other than the weakest link starter. 4) Stuckey is talented and athletic, but lacks the ability to take over games and makes a lot of bad decisions. He could be a good complement to a good point guard, but his ceiling appears to be Vinnie Johnson. This is their core, and it's not pretty. The upside is that this team is perfectly built to become very good with the simple addition of a couple superstars, and they'll be drafting in position to land them for a couple years. The bonus is that they're not limited by having to draft a particular position (although if he drafts a SG, he'd better be damn good).
