So long, Tayshaun

I have a lot of fond memories of Tayshaun Prince. The first time I became aware of Prince, he was playing for Kentucky. Hunter S. Thompson (HUGE Kentucky fan) wrote glowingly about him on ESPN's Page 2 (where their best writers -Wiley, Thompson, Bill Simmons - used to reside), calling him an "assassin" (I think the link is broken). I was watching a UK-UNC game back in college in 2001 and this happened:

At that point, I was a Tayshaun Prince fan. That 5th trey sealed the deal. He was 1 step past the 'U'! So when the Pistons took him with the 23rd pick in 2002, I was ecstatic. I couldn't believe we (there I am, using the first-person plural) got a player of that caliber so deep in the draft. He spent most of his first year buried on the bench, which frustrated the hell out of me. Carlisle insisted on starting Michael Curry, supposedly a defensive specialist, who averaged 4.5 ppg over his career. 

This became problematic in the playoffs, because the Pistons were down 3-1 against the Magic and Tracy McGrady was tooling Curry up for over 40 points per game. Curry was giving up height & athleticism, and he was getting burned. Enter Prince, at 6'9" with a legendary wingspan (I think Jay Bilas just giggled somewhere), and McGrady went from scoring 27 points in game 4 to 19 in game 5. Prince hassled McGrady on defense and drained threes on offense, scoring 20 in the deciding game 7 (and holding McGrady to 21). Then in game 2 of the next series Tayshaun completely put the team on his back.

Yes, back when "isolayshaun" was a pretty good play. The crazy thing is, Tayshaun wasn't given a starting spot the next game. Or the next game. Or the one after that. It became clear, though, that the starting SF spot would be his. The next year Curry was gone, Prince averaged 10 ppg and nearly 5 boards, and he usually guarded the other team's best shooter. This was a Detroit team that broke defensive records. Ben Wallace protected the rim, Tayshaun the perimeter.

The Block (worthy of capital letters and the definite article) deserves its own paragraph and a preamble. Detroit had dropped game 1 and Rasheed Wallace guaranteed (which would later become known as "guaranSheed") victory in the next game. I didn't have a TV at the time, so I ended up at a bar on the corner of Michigan & Trumbull, right across the street from Tiger Stadium (RIP) with a couple friends. I have a DVD of this game, and I can say that watching it now is pretty brutal (I mean, look at the final score!), but at the end of the night my voice was hoarse and my legs tired from jumping up from my seat. Points were at a premium, blocks were plentiful, and if half the fouls had been called, most of the starters on both teams would've fouled out (World Peace nee Artest DID foul out, as well as Tinsley, and Rip finished with 5 fouls).

Then we get to the End Game. Pistons, up 2 with about 35 seconds left need at least 2 points and to burn clock. Rip made a beautiful swing pass to 'Sheed for an open dunk, except he gets fouled by O'Neal and it isn't called. In a mad race to beat the shot clock, Chauncey lost the ball & it got fed up court to Reggie, who's all by himself. Rip was trailing and I didn't even see Tayshaun until he was in the air. I think I jumped up so fast my chair fell over. Now there would probably be about 50 youtube videos taken by cell phones at that bar showing the reaction, but since I only have my memory to rely on I have to say that just about everybody was yelling at the top of their lungs. There was one Pacer fan in the bar that night, I think someone was probably punching him in celebration.

Detroit went on to beat Indiana in 6 games, then the Lakers in 5 to win the title with Tayshaun getting the Kobe assignment (Kobe shot 38% in the series). Unfortunately, this was probably the peak moment of Tayshaun's career. He would develop more as a player, but the following seasons were filled with turmoil and issues with coaches (Larry Brown bailing in the 2005 playoffs, various issues with Flip Saunders, problems festering with Michael Curry and culminating with John Kuester and the walk out). Some of those issues Prince had little part in, some he was right in the thick of it.

Lately Tayshaun has been more of a calming influence on the team, occasionally taking younger players aside to give them advice. I'm glad Tayshaun is going out like this, as opposed to getting chucked when he was a part of the problem. I couldn't quite believe it when I heard he'd been traded though, since I think he was probably Joe Dumars' favorite player (I mean, watch him talking about The Block), and Joe D's more recent moves have been made more with his heart that with his head (or maybe with some other part of his anatomy). This trade makes more sense for the Pistons than anyone else involved. Memphis loses a very talented (albeit expensive) wing player, Toronto dumped one of the best passing guards in the game (with a great shot, by the way) and a promising young PF, and Detroit loosens up the logjam at SF and cuts some salary, along with one of the few veteran presences on the team (although they do lose their two best 3pt shooters).

I'm anxious to see what Calderon adds to the Pistons. Hopefully this means Drummond is making a move to the starting lineup, since the Pistons are now even weaker on defense than they were before. Knight should slide over to the 2-guard spot and Monroe doesn't need to be as much of a distributor, which will help cut down on turnovers. Now all that's left is to cut Stuckey loose (PLEASE!) and upgrade the SF position.

Ugh... How about some Drummond love?

I missed most of last night's Pistons game, which was for the best. Really. The defense was as bad as it's been all year, turnovers were plentiful (Monroe & Knight combined for 9), and nobody really played well at all. Except Drummond. He had a double-double in his first 10 minutes (Monroe picked up 2 quick fouls in the 1st quarter), although many of his rebounds were of the Moses Malone variety (get a rebound, miss the putback, rebound your miss, etc.).

The less said about that game the better. Brandon Jennings carved up the Pistons for 31 and 6, which underlines Detroit's need for some perimeter defense. Paint defense wasn't great either, mainly because the Pistons did a terrible job defending screens, often leaving the cutter AND a shooter wide open.

On to better things. Grantland's Zach Lowe (a true basketball geek) wrote an article on the "All-Fun All Star Team", and naturally Drummond made the cut as a reserve.

Drummond has some issues with the complexities of big-man NBA defense, but this is no place for complexities. This is a place for outrageous dunks, emphatic shot blocks, alarmingly easy offensive rebounds, and the sort of springiness that should scare the rest of the Eastern Conference. Drummond is already a pick-and-roll threat in the mold of Tyson Chandler, a dunker so dangerous his rolls to the hoop suck defenders far into the lane, opening up things for everyone else. He has helped make Charlie Villanueva and Austin Daye relevant, and worked as perhaps the most important ingredient on surprisingly productive Detroit bench units. The best part is that Drummond still looks as if he's playing with a sort of forced restraint, as if leaping and cutting as hard as he could might rip a hole in the atmosphere.

I couldn't agree more (the bench looked pretty bad last night with Drummond playing mainly with the starters). He looks like he's constantly burning up with energy, waiting to explode for a rebound, a dunk or a block. Eventually he'll learn to control it, and his energy will look like a slow burn with occasional flare ups. Until then, he's going to run out of gas after long stretches and he'll make some mistakes.

Looking ahead to NBA Free Agency

Since nothing much was going on in Detroit sports last night, I took a look at the numbers and the Pistons have potentially a lot of money coming off the books this summer. Here's a list from hoopshype (player option/team option/qualifying offer):

By my calculations that's over $25 million coming off the books, $33.5 if they decide to amnesty Charlie V (or if he decides not to exercise his player option, which would be REALLY dumb on his part). Now here are the top free agents, along with a rough estimate of what it would take to sign them (here's the full list, by position & previous salary):

  Chris Paul - +$20 million

  Dwight Howard - +$20 million

  Andrew Bynum - $18 million

  Al Jefferson - $17 million

  Josh Smith - $14 million

  Kevin Martin - +$12 million

  Jose Calderon - $12 million

  David West - $10 million

There's a few other interesting guys out there that could be had for less (like Matt Barnes, J.J. Redick, Corey Brewer, J.J. Hickson, etc.), but I think with over $30 mil, the Pistons should take a shot at one of the big guys. Chris Paul would be ideal, but that's probably not happening. Howard, Andrew Bynum, Jefferson and Smith don't make sense if the plan is to build with Monroe and Drummond in the front court. That leaves Kevin Martin, Calderon and West. I really like Martin, I think the Pistons should go for him first and if that doesn't work out, then a Calderon/West combo (if West is willing to run some at the SF spot).

Ideally the Pistons get Martin for around $12-$14 million a year, pick up a solid wing defender like Brewer or Barnes for about $4-5 million and re-up with Will Bynum for $4 million with enough left over to pick up a bench PF like Hickson, Earl Clark, or re-up with Maxiell. That makes a starting 5 of Knight, Martin, Prince/Brewer, Monroe and Drummond with a bench of Bynum, Stuckey, Brewer/Prince, Daye/free agent PF TBD, and Kravtsov. The bench is a little weak, but that looks like a playoff team to me.

Michigan is #1, Pistons & Stuckey trade rumors

Once again, Michigan skated to a pretty comfortable win vs. another competent (but struggling) Big Ten opponent. Jordan Morgan rolled an ankle 2 minutes into the game, but the bench filled in nicely & Michigan SHOULD take the #1 spot (there is an argument for Kansas I guess) when the polls come out. As sort of an aside, Michigan as a team remind me a lot of the Heat. They have active hands on defense, leading to fast break points, they finish well, and they have excellent ball movement from more than the point guard position. Speaking of the Heat...

They ROLLED the Pistons Friday in Miami. After the 1st quarter it wasn't much of a contest. Monroe was outstanding (31pts, 12rebs), Drummond was ok, and Knight & Bynum weren't terrible... Everyone else should stick their heads in the sand. But it's the Heat, right?

Anyway, Stuckey was inactivated for the Magic game due to... who knows? Not an injury, apparently. The Pistons went on to win in dramatic fashion, with the best lineup being Knight (31 points) at the SG position and Bynum (12 assists) at the point.

Stuckey's been pretty cold recently (.349 FG% last 7 games) and has somewhat of a history of being a malcontent (but who didn't clash with Kuester?), but popular opinion is that the Pistons are looking to trade him, possibly to Boston.

Rondo's ACL tear puts him out for the season and the Celtics look like they've got a giant fork sticking out of their collective back, despite Sunday's win vs. Miami. Boston is already old, with Rondo out they're are REALLY old. Garnett is 36, Pierce & Terry are 35... This situation is so bad, Keyon Dooling offered to come out of retirement (his actual quote was "I’m not in shape, but I would [consider it]"... sounds great), but Dooling's career averages of 7.0 ppg and 2.2 apg would hardly replace Rondo. In the Miami game Boston's starting back court totaled 2 assists and shot 4-15 with Pierce operating at point forward (10 assists, 6 turnovers).

It's clear that Rondo's production can't begin to be replaced by anyone on Boston's roster, and the window is practically much closed for Pierce and Garnett. They needed changes before Rondo went down if they wanted to pretend they had a title shot. Now... bringing in Stuckey isn't exactly going to change their fortunes. He's having a down year (FG% below 39%, 3P% below 30%) and isn't exactly a point guard. He'd be better than what Boston has, but who would they trade for him?

Boston doesn't really have much to offer, other than Rondo (who they've shopped before). A straight up Rondo-for-Stuckey trade doesn't make much sense... What about this:

Stuckey & Pierce take turns distributing, Daye gives them range off the bench (and $3M expiring) and we exchange Maxiell's expiring contract for 4 years of Courtney Lee (AMNESTY!). Stuckey's PER is way down from the last 2 years, I'd expect it to go back up in a better situation in Boston. Anyway, this mitigates the loss of Rondo while freeing up some cash for the off-season.

Who knows how good Rondo will be after this injury, but I actually like this trade for both sides. ESPN's Tom Haberstroh posed 6 additional options (insider only, sorry) for Boston, none of which seemed likely (Really? A Lakers-Celtics trade?). The Toronto trade mortgages Bostons future with Sullinger & takes on Lowry, who wouldn't be a fit after Rondo's return. The Memphis trade suggestion mean cutting ties with Pierce and replacing him with Rudy Gay, which means getting younger but less efficient and worse defensively. Plus, Wroten doesn't exactly fix the PG problem. I couldn't see Utah doing this deal, or Minnesota doing this one. The only trade proposed that seemed remotely likely to me was the Atlanta one, although the likelihood of Garnett accepting a trade to Atlanta is slim.

The all-U of M post

Michigan beat Purdue by 15 in a home game... ho hum...

I have to say, this is the most fun I've had watching since the '96-'97 team (which technically didn't exist since they had to vacate their wins) with Louis Bullock, Maceo Baston, Tractor Traylor and Maurice Taylor. That team went a bit deeper than this one though. It's fun to look back. I noticed Tai Streets played in 13 games on that '97 team, which I hadn't remembered.

While they lack the depth of the '97 team, the current version is fun to watch (and hopefully cleaner the the old team, NCAA violations-wise). Glenn Robinson III is starting to become my favorite player, with Trey Burke holding a slim lead. He had a pretty filthy dunk and put up 12 & 9 on his dad's alma mater.

Burke wasn't crisp early (0-4 for 3) but cleaned it up and finished with a solid 15 points, 8 assists, a couple steals & blocks & only one turnover.

Tim Hardaway Jr. has a bit of a rep as a chucker (well, maybe he deserves it, but a couple years ago there wasn't anyone else to go to), and I think an incorrect impression people get of him is that he's completely full of himself, which couldn't be further from the truth. He's stepped up big time on defense the past couple years and improved his decision making and all around game. Check the improvements in FG%, 3PT% and rebounds from his first 2 years to this year:

He had a solid game - 13 points on 5-9 shooting (3-5 from 3), 4 boards, a dime, a steal and 2 blocks.

In other Michigan news, Denard Robinson hasn't exactly distinguished himself in the Senior Bowl prep so far. Keep in mind, he's still recovering from the elbow injury that knocked him out of the QB role (finally!), but a lot of the problems he's having adjusting to the position could have been avoided if Michigan had used him properly. I think Robinson should've taken less than half his snaps at QB and been used also in Michigan's return game. Now he's learning on the fly.

Anyway, here's a couple vids from Senior Bowl prep featuring Denard. If he want's to be a pro slot WR, he's going to have to run crisper routes. He doesn't look terrible though...

The thing is, this isn't exactly a Tim Tebow situation. Tebow worked out at various positions, but his value was at QB. Nobody is talking about Robinson as an NFL QB. If he's going to be a successful pro, it'll be as a slot WR/return man. Which begs the question "why didn't Michigan play him there?"

Stuckey & Drummond

So at some point in my last post I got away from one of the main points I wanted to make: Stuckey was BRUTAL down the stretch. He came in the game with 3:23 left in the 3rd quarter and played the rest of the way. Here are the Stuckey moments in the 4th quarter play by play (positive plays in bold):

  10:07  Stuckey misses layup, blocked by Gibson

  09:52  Stuckey fouls Nate Robinson, shooting foul (Robinson makes both FTs)

  09:36  Stuckey misses jump shot

  08:33  Stuckey misses jump shot

  07:31  Stuckey misses pullup jump shot

  06:14  Stuckey turnover, stepped out of bounds

  05:26  Stuckey misses 3pt shot 

  03:35 Stuckey makes jump shot, Monroe assists

  02:07 Stuckey makes jump shot

  01:24  Stuckey misses 3pt shot 

  00:29 Maxiell makes layup, Stuckey assists

  00:07  Stuckey fouls Belinelli, and 1 (Belinelli makes his FT, extending the lead to 3)

  00:01  Stuckey misses 3pt shot

That's not a lot of bold. For those counting at home, Stuckey shot 2-7 in the quarter, had 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls that led to 3 points for Chicago (and his +/- was worst on the team at -8, if you pay attention to that stuff). In his defense, nobody else was doing much either, but I think a lot of that goes to the coach practically never subbing that 4th quarter when his guys were clearly dragging.

Now, on a happier and less complainative (is that a word?) note,  I love watching Andre Drummond rebound. 

Granted, he was going up against a much weaker front-court, but he puts on a technical clinic. He seals off or maintains contact with his man, he reads the carom while the shot is still in the air, and he goes up & fights for it. On every board he's already moving to where the ball will be, and he's one of maybe 10-15 guys in the league that even do that.

In the Atlanta game he was facing a much tougher front-court with Horford, Josh Smith and Pachulia all being active rebounders. There are a couple examples of Drummond skying and fighting off guys to secure the board. He also goes for the tip in a lot, and I think that's where a lot of his misses come from (other than the free throw line). Anyway, it's good to see the guy grinding down low & putting in work.

Pistons get out-hustled

I didn't really think the Pistons had a shot last night, going into Chicago on the second night of a back-to-back and the beginning of a road trip. Chicago's really good, they're playing really well right now, and Noah has given the Pistons FITS (in their previous meeting he looked like Wilt Chamberlain with 30 points and 23 boards). Well, they lost but not in the way I expected.

The Pistons started out well and really ran out of gas at the end of the game. I'd argue Singler had the best game of any Pistons starter, but he got the fewest minutes and sat the last 7:05 of the game. Drummond was the best on the court, he played fewer minutes than Singler and sat the last 5:31. Frank made no substitutions in the last 5:31 of the game, Thibodeau made 5 subs in the last 2 minutes (switching offense for defense & vice versa)!

Here's my problem: Stuckey has been laying bricks all game and isn't a good 3pt shooter. Prince & Knight aren't playing terribly, but Stuckey is taking all the shots. We get to End Game, 29.4 seconds left, 82-82, Chicago has the ball. These are the lineups:

• For Detroit - Knight, Stuckey, Prince, Maxiell and Monroe
• For Chicago - Robinson, Boozer and Belinelli (just subbed for Gibson & Heinrich), Butler and Noah

So Chicago goes for an offensive lineup, Detroit fails to counter with, say, Drummond (instead of Monroe) and Singler (instead of Stuckey). Then this happens:

Three things bother me about this. First, Noah's initial screen on Stuckey (which eventually pulls Monroe out of the rebounding area) is clearly illegal. He looks like a left tackle, blocking a guy down & then falling on him so he can't get the QB. Second, Monroe's defense on this play is pretty bad. He does a lot of ball watching when Belinelli initially get open, and then he hangs out at the 3pt line as Noah saves it. Third, what the heck is Stuckey doing, fouling like that? If you're going to reach in, wrap him up! I play in a regular weekly pick up game here in Detroit, and when the game gets tight like that... no free-bees. Good hustle play by Noah (after the blatant moving screen), everybody on the Pistons seemed to be asleep.

Anyway, now there's 7.5 seconds left, 85-82 after the free throw, and these are the guys on the court:

• For Detroit - Knight, Stuckey, Prince, Maxiell and Monroe
• For Chicago - Robinson, Gibson and Heinrich (subbed for Boozer & Belinelli), Butler and Noah

The Pistons are down by 3 and have 1 person in the game who's actually connected from distance all game. Stuckey is their 8th best 3pt shooter (9th, if you count Drummond's 1-2 on the year), and it's not like he had a hot hand or anything. Not really sure why Frank had both Maxiell AND Monroe out there, neither was going to shoot. Frank had called a 20 second timeout, you would think he'd use that opportunity to insert a 3 point threat or 2. Alas.

Anyway, Tay and Stuckey both bricked their threes (great rebound & feed by Knight on that play though), and the loss was cemented. I'm not sure what Jerebko did (or didn't do) to get on Frank's bad side, but it's pretty extreme to basically play an 8-man rotation in the 2nd half because of a personality conflict or whatever it is. And reading between the lines

in this article from The Detroit News, it appears Monroe and Drummond don't play together much because they're still adjusting to Monroe at the 4 instead of the 5. REALLY? Halfway through the season and Monroe can't play his natural position? I have serious doubts about Frank's coaching ability if that's the case.

Old school & new school Detroit

Buster Olney, who I read with regularity, just did this piece on the top 10 outfields of all time (sorry, need insider access to view the article). Baseball news is slow right now, so perfect time for a series of top 10 lists. Anyway, he (sort of) puts the '22 Tigers at #4 overall. My only problem with that is dead-ball era stats have to be taken with a giant grain of salt, and the vestiges of the dead ball era were still lingering in 1922 (Olney's list of top 10 rotations includes 2 dead-ball era teams, which is just cherry picking).

Anyway, I was slightly surprised none of the Al Kaline outfields even got an honorable mention. You could go with 1968, even though Kaline was injured and only had 327 at bats (he included the 1994 Expos, which was a strike shortened season of 114 games).

Horton had his best season, Kaline was good in only 102 games, and Northrup was also pretty good. The OPS+ compares well with others that made Olney's top 10 : the '94 Expos (ranked 10th) had OPS+ of 153, 151 and 99, the '02 Braves (8th on the list) had OPS+ of 153, 138 and 127, and the '75 Red Sox (7th) had OPS+ of 162, 128 and 120. 

The 1969 Tigers outfield was pretty good (combined for 74 homers), but deserves to be left off Olney's list. The '62 Tigers were probably good enough, however. 

Combined for 82 homers, decent other numbers... It was pretty obvious Olney was staying away from anything tainted by steroids (although Albert Belle made it in there). He avoided any of the early-'90's A's outfields. I'd have gone with 1990 myself. Rickey had 28 HR, batted .325, had 65 steals and an OPS+ of 189, Canseco had 37 HR and an OPS+ of 159, and Dave Henderson (always underestimated) had 20 HR, and an OPS+ of 126.

I supposed there are a multitude of deserving outfields that were passed over, but I thought I'd mention a couple of good Al Kaline outfields.

Pistons won last night in grand fashion (Red Wings lost, no signs of that stopping either), and Drummond continues to make his case for the starting lineup. The only thing that SHOULD be limiting his minutes is his FT%, which is in the basement. Other than that, the kid has earned his spot. Frank has been S L O W L Y ramping up Drummond's minutes, from 17.3 per game in November to 22.1 in December to 24 last night. I've already said I'd like to see him getting at least 30 at this point. We'll see.

The win puts the Pistons' record at 16-25, 4 games behind Boston for the 8th spot in the playoffs. So at the half-way point there's an outside shot at the playoffs. Which is where I more or less thought they'd be before the season started, but then the season started (0-8, ugh). Anyway, here's the obligatory Drummond highlight from last night:

And Rodney Stuckey justified his existence for once, courtesy of Will Bynum):

Who needs football... right? RIGHT???

I've got mixed feelings about the Pats missing the playoffs. On one hand, I feel sort of obligated to root for them based on their Michigan connections (Yeah, Brady, but mainly because of Zoltan Mesko). On the other hand, I'm kinda tired of them, Belichick is a certifiable douche, and Brady has turned into kind of a whiner. They really are the Yankees of football.

So this leaves me without much rooting interest in the Superbowl. I'm not really a Flacco fan, and Ray Lewis is really too much right now. I mean REALLY, really too much. And as a Lions fan I can't root for the 49ers while Jim Harbaugh is the head coach, right? Can I root for both to lose? Or the stadium to collapse? Pro football is going to be rough until I can fully immerse myself in the fantasy of unrealized expectations that is the NFL Draft. Actually, better to say the hype before the NFL Draft, because I've been pretty disappointed with the Lions' actual drafts for the past... I don't know, 20 years?

There was another game on Sunday that I was more interested in. Let me give you a hint:

Yes, more Drummond-love. The Bynum-to-Drummond alley 'oop was in full effect. Eventually the C's got tired of getting dunked on and applied the Hack-a-Drummond strategy, which is kind of like punting on 3rd down. As a result, Drummond ended up with 16 points and 7 boards in 20 minutes of play. Monroe was steady, Bynum was fantastic (and looks like the best guard on the team), but Drummond remains the most fun to watch.

He gets some amazing rebounds, had a couple of nice blocks, and he had a steal that if Pierce hadn't grabbed his jersey would've been a spectacular dunk (not sure why a "clear path" foul wasn't called, because that's what it was). In a game which most of the team performed well, Drummond got top honors. Oh, and the Pistons won by 15.

Here's a tidbit, courtesy of Vince Goodwill & pistonpowered.com. I don't think it explains why Drummond hasn't cracked the starting lineup yet, but it does provide some insight. If it was still December, maybe I could see Lawrence Frank keeping Drummond on the bench based on uncertainty and practice performance. But, as Tayshaun said, some players aren't practice players. Drummond is putting the work in, but doesn't get production in practice. Ok. Start the "practice stars" for practices and the "game stars" for games. Austin Daye must be a practice STUD or something. That's the only explanation for him.

I've got a couple of quick gripes and then I'm done. First, the isolation is the laziest play in all of basketball. Well, for everyone but the guy with the ball. It's a lot better if it's run in conjunction with some off-ball motion, but a lot of the time the other 4 guys turn into ball-watchers. This is fine if it's iso LeBron or Durant, but... Of all the iso's run in the league, the Tayshaun Prince iso is the dullest and probably least effective. He doesn't pass out of it and he's only got 2 go-to moves. Frank has moved toward the Greg Monroe iso, which is a lot better, but fails when defenses crash inside (because nobody else is a threat). Anyway, the iso is not a play that fits the Pistons personnel.

Second, enough with Rodney Stuckey already. He's not a good 3-pt shooter, he's not a point guard, and a mediocre defender. Knight looks like if he works hard he could become a rich man's Rodney Stuckey. Ugh. And to think we could've gotten Kemba Walker, a rich man's Brandon Knight... Anyway, Stuckey just doesn't fit this team, especially with Knight taking over the role of combo-guard who never becomes a true PG. I think he'll be a solid 6th-man type with another team. Can we deal him with a couple baggage contracts for Jeff Teague?

Michigan wins in Minneapolis, Pistons... not so much

Lots of things happened in the sports world yesterday, but it is imperative I open with this:

Glad to see Michigan didn't have a hangover from the OSU loss. Trey Burke didn't have his best game, Hardaway turned it over 6 times, and Minnesota beat them all pretty badly on the glass, but U-M persevered. Burke doesn't need to shoot well to impact the game (9 assists, 1 turn over), Hardaway shot EXTREMELY well (7-8 from the field, 4-5 from distance), and GR3 had one monster 360. This is a fun team to watch.

The Pistons on the other hand...

Well, they're less fun to watch. They lost to the Knicks 102-87 after falling way behind in the first half. Drummond and Bynum were the only 2 who looked legit (other than Monroe in the 3rd). Really, the less said about that game the better.

So I'm going to transition over to an advanced stats discussion. This has been discussed ad nauseum on other sites, but I think it's worth going over more carefully. Here's an overview of everyone on the team ranked by Win Shares (stats captured from http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/2013.html):

Drummond dominates advanced stats. His PER (Player Efficiency Rating, see Hollinger, John) is highest on the team and 14th overall in the NBA. PER tends to over-value bench players who rebound really well & mainly dunk, (JaVale McGee has a 21.58 PER, 18th overall), so I'd expect that number to drop some if/when Lawrence Frank starts playing Drummond 30+ minutes a game & runs a few set plays for him.

Still, the numbers are VERY impressive. Here's a close up the shooting & rebounding numbers:

Drummond rebounds at an INSANE rate, surpassed only by Reggie Evans, Anderson Varejao, Kevin Love, and JJ Hickson. The TRB% measures the percentage of rebounds available that player actually rebounded. Monroe is no slouch here, but Drummond is a beast. Drummond's TS% (true shooting percentage) takes a hit because he's such an atrocious free-throw shooter, but he's still got a significant edge on Monroe there too. Here's the rest of the advanced stats:

Again, Drummond dominates most of these categories, doing especially well in BLK% (an estimated percent of opponents' shots the player blocked), DRtg (estimated points allowed per 100 possessions). His WS/48 is almost double the next guy's, and believe me I'm not trying to pick on Monroe. 

I think Drummond is ready for more. The guy is averaging less than 20 minutes a game. We're nearing the mid-way point of the season, I think it's time to start giving Drummond 30+ minutes a game. I'm not mad that they're bringing him along slowly, but enough is enough. He's getting a lot of love from sports writers all over, he's in the ROY conversation, but there are 12 other rookies getting more minutes. 

At the very least the team would be more watchable. Right?

Manti Teo and Mock Drafts

Manti Te'o is a really, really good middle linebacker for the #2 ranked college team in the nation, and he finished 2nd in the Heisman voting. Let's not forget that before we get into this next bit of craziness.

Te'o got quite a bit of publicity for his play, his leadership, and for playing through the deaths of his grandmother and his girlfriend which occurred within a few days of each other. I mean, you can't make this stuff up! Oh wait... First came this bombshell from deadspin yesterday, which started a flurry of back-pedaling from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and about everybody else associated with the original story. Frankly, the whole thing makes my head spin, I found this timeline from USA Today quite helpful.

 So Te'o made the girlfriend up. Or she made herself up and Te'o is a dupe along with the rest of us. Or he was mostly duped, found out later, but the Notre Dame brass urged him to keep it quiet until after the BCS National Championship game. The fact that Te'o completely fabricated his girlfriend out of thin air is stupid enough that it might be true, or the guy could've been duped and then the truth was temporarily suppressed by Te'o's coaches so as not to be a distraction (which is probably was, given his play in the the title game). As I like to say, let's not rush to judgement before all the facts are in.

Unfortunately upon hearing this news, my brain almost immediately went to the implications on the Lions' draft. Te'o was in the top 2 list of guys I wanted the Lions to draft, the other being Dee Milliner. Now I'm not sure. Speaking of which...

ESPN's Mel Kiper has released his first mock draft of probably 57 or so. It's an ESPN Insider only article though, so you might not be able to view it. Not to worry. Mock drafts are basically useless until after the combine, but... I can't help myself. He's got the Lions taking Jarvis Jones (if you're not familiar with mocks, this will change 28 times before the actual draft). Before yesterday I'd have said take Te'o over Jones in a heartbeat, but it's hard to say now.

Here's some Jarvis Jones highlights:

And some Dee Milliner highlights (the ones vs. Michigan are tough to watch):

And finally some Manti Te'o highlights (so sad):

That's all for now. Good luck to the Pistons playing the Knicks (sans 'Sheed, alas) in London tonight.

Day of Days

I write emails. Looooong, sports related emails. Often including pics, links, and clips. Think "blog-post in email format". I'm sure about 80% of what I write never gets read due to the time constraints of the reader. I enjoy it though, because writing them actually informs me, and I end up with a more fully developed opinion and command of the facts.

The downside is I often feel like I'm putting a burdensome pressure on the recipient(s) to actually read the thing I send them. Also, often I'm sending to a work email, which means my 2,500-some words full of insight, wisdom & links can only be read during the workday. Well that ends today. I'm sure there are many blogs out there with a greater purpose than to be less inconvenient to people, but I make no apologies.

I love sports & have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with my Detroit teams. There are a lot of blogs that are specific to one team or one sport, but I can't really pick. I'll mainly stick with Detroit teams since that's where my rooting interests lie, but I'll probably stray into the greater realm of sports from time to time & maybe even the mysteries of the human condition. Hey, it could happen.

I also love food & cooking, art (I'm an artist by inclination, training and hopefully by trade sometime soon), movies, my wife, and the teachings of Jesus, so expect some of that to permeate the content of this blog. I'll try to be as visually friendly as possible because I'm an artist and that's what I do. 

That's all for now. First actual post is forthcoming.