Wings Win, Phil Jackson??? and Lions News

Well, there's big-ish news on the Pistons' coaching search, but that comes secondary to the Wings right now.

As I hope you know, the Wings are in the playoffs again, which means I'll probably be writing more frequently about them (and hopefully for a couple months). It was a narrow thing this year, and they almost didn't make it. It was close enough that Grantland published an article remembering some of the great moments (and some not-so-great) in the Wings' 21-straight playoff appearances, as a sort of preemptive eulogy. Fortunately the Wings won out, ending up in the 7th seed for the playoffs.

Anyway, they came out a little flat in their first game against the Ducks and dropped it 1-0. Babcock decided to swap out the brawler Jordin Tootoo for Todd Bertuzzi. I'm not sure exactly what effect that had on the outcome (Bertuzzi only played 7 minutes), but the Wings ended up winning in OT, taking a tied series to Detroit. Here was the NHL.com headline:

Typical NHL.com groan-worthy pun, but maybe not as bad as NY-QUIST LOVE (playing off of ?uestlove I guess), GETZ THE POINT, PALM PILOT, HUGE JACKMAN, or GRIN & BARRET... You get the point, it's like they have my dad working for them.

The Wings' youngsters contributed to a 4-1 lead, which they then gave up in the 3rd period. Basically 3 of Anaheim's goals were on the power play (I don't consider the power play REALLY over until the penalty kill unit leaves the ice), and on 2 of the goals one of the Ducks was checking a Red Wing into Howard, impeding his vision and movement. I thought Howard was excellent, really only one of the 4 goals he gave up was on the soft side, and he made some brilliant stops.



Damien Brunner, who's not technically a rookie but he's new to the NHL, had a goal and 2 assists. Nyquist had the game winner, and Abdelkader had the opening goal and probably deserved 2 more, taking 6 shots. Franzen had the other 2 goals, and Datsyuk contributed 2 assists, but the Wings' youth movement seems to be on a roll. It took a hit though, when promising young defenseman Danny DeKeyser broke his thumb & was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs.

It's a mixed back. The Wings won game 2 away from home ice, which is good and gives them the advantage going forward. But they gave up 3 goals in the final period & allowed Anaheim to tie, which is bad. They had good energy from their younger guys, especially Abdelkader, but they lost DeKeyser. I'm hoping Ian White or whoever comes in and helps hold down the fort. Next game is Saturday.

The big news on the Pistons' coaching search is that owner Tom Gores is bringing in Phil Jackson to "serve in an advisory capacity". He's basically a coaching consultant. My initial reaction was something like "YES! Wait, what?" Here's a little background - Phil Jackson, one of the 5 best coaches ever, has expressed interest in a GM job and possibly even returning to the bench (presumably along with some shot-calling power). A couple teams have contacted him to test his interest in a coaching or even GM position with their franchise. Gores has expressed displeasure with the results so far, since becoming owner of the Pistons. Gores has also shown that he's not really a Bill Davidson kind of owner (hands off the basketball decisions). It's not clear whether he'll go full-on James Dolan or only contribute in a Paul Allen-Jerry Buss sort of way.

Basically what I'm saying is while I welcome the knowledge that Phil Jackson brings to the table, this puts Joe Dumars' job in a somewhat more precarious situation. If everything's on the level, Jackson comes in, helps the Pistons land a great coach, and leverages that into a more favorable GM position (like getting the Knicks GM job instead of the Raptors). If shady things are going on, Dumars is in trouble. Stay tuned.

Some REALLY good news for the Pistons is Andre Drummond may go to Houston to work out with Hakeem Olajuwon. When Monroe was talking about what he and Drummond need to work on, his #1 thing for Drummond was comfort with the ball in his hands. I agree with this 100% (working on his physical condition would be #2, and apparently that's happening). Drummond looked really uneasy with the ball in his hands, unless he was in step-dunk range. Olajuwon was probably more comfortable with the ball than any center in history. Bill Simmons talks about McHale's "Panda Express" menu of post moves... Maybe so, but Olajuwon's spin moves, Dream Shake, and that fade away play better with Drummond's athleticism. Check out Dream working with Dwight Howard in 2010:

Couple Lions tidbits and then I'm done for today - at the moment, rookie DE Ziggy Ansah is the odds-on favorite to win defensive ROY. That would be great, but he's certainly not a lock. Kevin Seifert made a list of post-draft issues each team in the NFC North still has to deal with. Here are the Lions':

Issue: The Lions didn't draft a receiver until the sixth round (Virginia Tech's Corey Fuller), but they almost…. 
Analysis: According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Lions told Michigan's Denard Robinson that they planned to draft him with the No. 136 overall pick. Mayhew had spoken before the draft about Robinson's potential as a "slash" player from the backfield and/or slot receiver position. Robinson, however, was selected at No. 135 by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Eventually the Lions used the No. 166 overall pick to select Notre Dame's Theo Riddick, who is not as explosive as Robinson but is a good receiver out of the backfield in his own right. Ultimately, the Lions finished this draft thin at the traditional receiver position given the injury rehabilitations of Nate Burleson and Ryan Broyles. 

I'm less concerned about this issue than Seifert is, since Scheffler can split out as can Fauria, one of the undrafted FA's the Lions picked up.

Issue: The Detroit Lions didn't draft an offensive tackle after the departure of both 2012 starters. 
Analysis: Riley Reiff, the Lions' top draft choice in 2012, will start at left tackle. The Lions' right tackle could be Jason Fox or Corey Hilliard. That still leaves the Lions thin along the line, especially at right guard if rookie Larry Warford isn't ready to step in right away. Regardless, Lions general manager Martin Mayhew made clear the Lions need to add more depth. "We're really young there so we'll look at some veteran guys there I think over the next few weeks."

This I'm slightly more concerned about. There are several quality OT's still unsigned (Eric Winston, Jared Gaither and Max Starks to name 3), and the Lions also picked up a couple undrafted FA tackles that could vie for playing time (Austin Holtz of Ball State and LaAdrian Waddle of Texas Tech). Still, this strategy reminds me a lot of how they dealt with the defensive backfield problem last year, and we all remember how well that worked.