Who for new Center?

Darko's stock won't drop until after he signs the contract and begins to play.

Here is the stat I like about Dale Davis.

He was the 4th best on the team in terms of +/- per minute played.

#1- McDyess: .156
#2- Chauncey: .145
#3- Rip Hamilton: .127
#4- Dale Davis: .107


When he was on the court, we scored 5 points less, but gave up 7 less points per 100 possessions. That is Ben Wallace-like.

Also, when he was in the game, we fouled less, blocked more shots, and most importantly, out-rebounded our opponents. We got 53.3% of the total rebounds when he was in and only 48.7% when he was out. That is a huge difference.

This guy is good for another year or two. And he provides an attitude. Chauncey can train our new fleet of guards and Dale can make sure our new bigs are tough enough.

I'ts certainly an interesting suggestion. He may even be able to help us. But let's remind ourselves of the type of player Joe likes to bring here - draft, etc.

1) Someone who "brings it" every time he's on the court.
2) A tough-minded competitor who cares more about winning than his individual stats.
3) Someone who has something to prove ("chip on his shoulder").
4) He brings something positive to add to the existing team culture.
5) He's professional, not a distraction or a "knucklehead".

I'm not sure Darko's a good fit, but it certainly would be an interesting experiment to give him a second chance here.

Flip didn't insert Dale into games when the Pistons were playing the others teams "B" squad or anything?

Teams that weren't as cohesive as the starting five so they settled for jumpers and often put up less points. Lacked the confidence and aggressiveness to get to the foul line.

Typical bench player stuff.

Naw.

Actually, Dale Davis usually entered the game when our starting bigs were getting their butts kicked and were in quick foul trouble. He was typically playing against starters. Remember the goon squad breakout game? After that, Flip Saunders rarely played him. Not sure why.

Perhaps Dales tenacity and toughness reminded Flip of Ben, and he had to put a stop to it.

Flip has really weird tendencies (not just his facial ticks), like whenever bench guys get hot he sits them down like he'll wait for the 3/4th and put them back in and not miss a step. I think his decisions are too technical, he needs to better feel the flow of the game...

The Goon Squad game...thank God we have a coach as insightful as Flip who could see that the DD/Max combo that worked so well in one game was just a fluke and should never be used again. That kind of smarts is why you want an experienced coach on the sidelines. You get some guy like a Laimbeer or a Mike Curry as a coach and they would think....

"Hey that Goon Squad deal really worked, I think I'll use it again"

Yeah right! LOL....just because something worked really well once doesn't mean it will ever work again...or that you should even try it again. That's why I like the coaching experience Flip brings us...he can see beneath the surface of ordinary situations and decipher the likely outcomes of occurences that haven't occured yet.

That would actually be a cool nickname. Why haven't I heard this one before?

Maybe we can trade Nazr Mohammed, Flip Murray, and a second round draft pick for a starting center who is going to lead the Pistons to the finals, but there are only a few really dumb General Managers in the NBA so there is not much chance that is going to happen.
Nazr is not going to be better next year than he was last year, but he is plenty good enough to be a back up. Better than most second stringers, I think.
Maxiell, McDyess and Amir Johnson all need to get most of their minutes at power forward and they all need to play.
The only answer I can see is either start Rasheed Wallace at center or trade him for a starting center. He is the only one with the trade value and contract to make it likely to happen if we want to get someone significantly better than Nazr.
I think Rasheed is the best player on the team and a leader. I would like to see him stay, but he would have to want to play center and sacrifice some of his own game to win another ring. This might only be a one or two year fix but I bet Rasheed could do it if he wanted to.
The other choice is start Nazr again and hope the young guys can lift the whole team, but that is really a crap shoot.

I think Webber would better serve us off the bench to play alongside Stuckey to take some of the pressure of the kid's passing skills. I still think we're screwed at center in the beginning of the year. Nazr does Ramadan, Dyess comes back off of his no-practice off season, and that leaves us with our two best options at less than 80%. Part of the problem with keeping Nazr is that we'll have to use him (to raise his trade value) during the beginning of the season when he sucks the most. I think Webb would still help this team though.

I'm not saying he'll be doing Ramadan during the season, but he'll be... recovering/returning to normalcy from it. Just like Dyess being a little out of it at the beginning of the season, Nazr's body is getting back into the rhythm of things. During the beginning of the season he is not 100% effective because during the time that the team is coming together during preseason/early practices he's recovering.

Was there some other religious holiday that screwed up the rest of his year?

Haha yeah, Flip Saunderism because it has little to no faith in the bench

Actually the Islamic calendar is the same as the Jewish calendar except that the Jewish calendar adds a leap month periodically so that their major Jewish festivals always fall within the same season; i.e., spring, summer, winter, fall, whereas no such adjustment is made to the Islamic calendar.

Both calendars are lunar except for the leap month adjustment in the Jewish calendar. The Gregorian calendar followed by Christians is a solar calendar and is based on the annual revolution of the earth around the sun.