The Drama Begins

On the Pistons' eight consecutive loss, voices that has been kept for several weeks has been yelled out. This began during the fourth quarter of the game against the New Orleans. Wallace couldn't control his temper and earned himself a quick consecutive technical fouls. Pretty offensive to the refs, to the New Orleans fans and even to Curry and his teammates. Wallace basically handed the game to the Hornets with technicals he committed cost them seven points. The fact that Pistons loss by only three points, is an evident that Pistons could've won the game if Wallace would've controlled his temper.

After the game, the drama continued by a voice that a few weeks ago was willing to come off the bench as long as its for the benefit of helping the team to win. A sacrifice that was smart and unselfish where in the workplace is called work ethic. I'm talking about Richard Hamilton. He finally said it, what everyone has been suggesting that he shouldn't be in the bench, he's not happy and things aren't going well for the team. "Something has to give" were one of his exact words. You can't get anymore accurate than that. When something has been done for awhile producing bad result, normally, the natural reaction is to change how it's being done to try to produce a better result. That's it! That's all what Rip is saying.

When Rip came off the bench and average close to twenty points a game, it sounded pretty inspiring. Not so true. Regardless of how much points Rip makes even if its 30+ points, the points allowed to the opponents is much worse. If A.I. is in the starting line up with Stuckey, it's been an evidence that Pistons' defensive scheme is horrible. Pick and roll is almost impossible to cover. A.I. is too easy to clamp a screen by the opponent and its almost impossible for Wallace and Dyess to recover from it, leaving the ball handler cruise to the paint or bounce pass it to the screener. If either way was covered, which barely happens with A.I. getting screened, the defensive scheme has already been scrambled. Teams with fast guards are primary examples...Tony Parker, CP3, Dwade etc.

The other defensive liability that could collapse if AI is in the starting line up is teams with bigger guards. This is no rocket scientist for any coach to figure it out. In fact, fans could easily point out. Consequently, Dyess and Wallace would have to provide help coverage which leaves the paint open for a second chance points or at least an offensive rebound, where Pistons have been hurt. Normally, most people would think that AI's scoring ability would provide a great offense for a Pistons considering it has a cast that could score 20 or 30 points a night, not so true. Pistons' cast Wallace, Rip, Prince, Stuckey and Dyess are accustomed to sharing the ball with a blue print offensive scheme. With AI commanding the ball to iniate his offense, the rest of the staring line up began to wonder what they needed to do that they end up literally just standing around and waiting for what AI might do, take a shot, bail out, or dishing it. Pistons has yet to leart this type of blue print and may be difficult considering the time they spent with AI and with a guidance of a rookie coach. AI running the offense for the starting line up is an experiment like a time bomb.

On the other hand, AI's offensive threat has been acknowledge by the league, all his awards were not a coincident of any kind. He's a remarkable player, who attacks the basket, players, regardless of the opponents size considering AI's small and short frame. Flashes of AI's scoring dynamic were mostly demonstrated during his time in Philly, where he was the reigning captain and leader of the sixers. This leads me to suggest that his insertion to the second line up would rejuvenate his dynamic talent when hes surrounded by players who hustles more than what people think. Afflalo is a ruthless defender to guards and in the 3 position who has a great shooting range. Amir Johnson's capability of running down the court that could easily blend in with AI's run and gun style. Maxiell's explosiveness of rebounds, blocks and dunks. Hermann's long range beyond the arc. Bynum's fast pace ball handling and Kwame's young legs and wide size that could defend the paint.


With the starting line up Stuckey, Rip, Prince, Dyess and Sheed, the Pistons will have an offensive flow that's familiar to them and a man-to-man defense is a walk in the park. With AI leading the second unit of Kwame, Amir/Max, Hermann/Afflalo and Bynum may just be one of the dangerous second unit in the league.

7!

Seven, is the current losing streak Pistons are in. Pretty pathetic, yet, there's really nothing to say rather than trying to make this fun, where real fans must still have. Rather than looking anything positive about the situation, the only fun thing to do is to count. SEVEN!!! In less than 24 hours, we'll find out if it gets to 8 or back to zero tomorrow in New Orleans.

On Curry's Offensive Playbook

Just got back from Big Bear Cali and I was expecting the Pistons have won a game during Saturday, that is if they had a game, apparently they didn't which gives me a chance to see a game against the Cavs, what a treat. Not! It's 39 seconds left at the end of first half and the score is 65-31 Pistons down. Amazing, yet expected.

Not that I'm jumping out of the Curry's bandwagon, but I'm convince that his offensive playbook has to be very ridiculus. How can a team with having one of the greatest offensive player (A.I.) in the league unable to get set to score? How can Wallace (the only guy who's reliable above the arc this season) began stalling on scoring both inside and outside? How can Prince barely participate in the offensive stat after being the most consistent player for the last six season? How can Stuckey, the number one offensive threat from Washington unable to score decently? To top it, the Zoo Crew has completely been wipe out in the air, Maxiell, Amir and Afflalo can only score because of their hustle and almost for just being at the right place at the right time. This concludes that Curry's offensive playbook has been written all over the continuous losing skid of the Pistons. In other words, having A.I., Rip, Wallace, Prince, Stuckey and McDyess as the guaranteed players on the rotation producing one of the worst scoring points is clearly unacceptable. He's offensive playbook is beyond terrible.

1!

One more day and every team in the NBA this season will have to go to war (playoffs) with what they got, that is offcourse if you are chosen to go to it.

• Speaking of making it to the playoffs, the Pistons are in danger of losing that spot....a lost to a crappy team at home is a really bad sign...just few games ahead to the last spot
• After a lost to the Bucks, I'm convince Joe is working the phone for a trade.....otherwise, he'll have to watch the Pistons swim or drown
• The Curry bandwagon is extremely beginning to hit the big bumps throwing everybody out
• The only exact same thing that I've seen this season from the last few season are Dyess and Rip.....to sum up in one word, Consistency. The rest, at this point are pretty questionable. What's going on?
• At this point there's only two ways if the Pistons are to win enough games to make it to the playoffs. First is if Joe D makes a trade before the deadline and get a similar result when Rasheed Wallace came or even better similar to Paul Gasol coming to LA. The other way is Joe doesn't make any trade and just hope the Pistons finally turns it up, but again this has been the hopes from the beginning of the season.

3!

I just got back from Phoenix Arizona for the All Star 2009 and it was the greatest basketball game (and show) I've ever been! It's one of those thing you HAVE to go once in your life! Thanks to M!

• I was eyeing A.I. for few times during the game, other than his new haircut, he had a 1-3minutes of hugs and conversation with Bill Russell about "?" I wish I knew, but whatever it was, I hope it was a word of wisdom. We'll see how A.I. driven passion gets implemented to the Pistons
• Kobe and Shaq together again & shared the MVP award....It's hard not to think its all for publicity purposes
• Seeing CP3 playing on TV is pretty good, but in person, he's just crazy awesome. The point guard position belongs to him for the next decade. Nevermind the miss dunk, he did a lob dunk!
• After watching the game on TV from Tivo(ing) it, I notice that Lebron was goofing around too much during Colangelo's speech...He did stop after he was told by someone when he nod his head of indicating he'll stop with an apology. I'm guessing it was Mike Brown. Very immature but funny, then I realize, hey he's only 24
• Celebrities extravaganza. It's almost like the red carpet in Hollywood
• Alex Acker sent to Clippers. Does Joe have a next move? Based on his previous trading transaction in the past, usually a trade like this is followed by another one
• Dyess takes a shot of the starting line up. I love it! Not just because it'll make Wallace's job a lot easier by covering less part of the paint but because of the energy and passion he puts on his team. He's giving everything he got. I hope it's contagious.

3 Days to go, clock ticking, I have no doubt in my mind that GMs are working the phone

6!

6 Days to go until the trade deadline and as expected, trade is bound to happen. Early today, it began with Jermaine O'Neal to be sent to Miami Heat in exchange of Shawn Marion. The Heat could definitely use a true center in the paint, but how much can O'Neal offer with his re-occuring injury. On the other hand, Shawn Marion seems to be healthy but very unfortunate for him since Miami is hitting the "we're contenders too" drums.

This trade leads me to believe that we can crush Chris Bosh's and Michael Beasley's trade this season while there's still no definite path for Amare.

7!

7 days until the Trade Deadline and it seems that Amare is still the hot topic in the trade market. New rumor has been generated today that the Blazers are the front runner for the All Star power forward in exchange of a package around Marcus Aldridge.

Chris Bosh is the runner up however, a counter rumor generated stating Raptors has no intention of trading him even though he gave an indication that he is going to opt out when 2010 comes around.

Pistons manage to lose another game before going into the All Star weekend. Fans are starting to get really cranky even towards Joe D. I can't really blame anyone, with all the talents that Pistons have, there's just no excuse for the performance and execution that's been happening game after game. It's sickening.

Against ALL Odds

The losing saga began when A.I. came to Detroit or another way of saying is when Billups left Detroit. It's all relative, the chemistry, the time that's needed to restructure the team, who's starting, who's sitting, is the coach good enough to carry on the traditional success. Also, the ups and downs are completely untrue. The fact is, the Pistons has been down, way down there. The wins were not merely an indication of consistency and definitely not a sign of being contenders. In fact, they're not even close as the gate keeper of the Eastern Conference Finals path, if its any consolation, they are the runner up for the playoffs.....sad, but true. Lets look at this in a reasonable way.

Joe D in bringing in A.I.

One thing for sure is, if Joe D didn't pull the trigger to trade Chauncey for A.I. and let's say they happen to be on a No. 2 spot in the East, do you really think fans would be happy about it? Offcourse not, people would be complaining that he should've done the deal and he didn't. But hey, he did, not because he listen to what the fans cry about, but that's how he sees fit. The fact is that Chauncey had 6 chances to run this team and that should be more than enough. However, this doesn't mean that Joe D made the right move although, it's time for someone or a different team (with A.I.) to get their chance to see if they can compete for the championship. Joe restructuring the team is fair, not very ideal, not even close, but its fair.

Denial on Rasheed Wallace

We all know how great Rasheed is, the defense, the post up offense, the only PF/C who can shoot above the arc, the energy he brings, all those has been acknowledge. The truth is, its been overblown and at this point, its been overrated. Yes, he can guard Timmy and KG pretty well, but can he really do that for 4 quarters? If so, can he do that 2 consecutive games? There's always that excuse that always comes up, his toe, ankle, he's technical, and my favorite when he gets the technical, he'll be a threat to the opposing team. It's funny to think how a person can get motivated with the expense of the whole team, by letting the opposing team shoot a free throw, but that's just what a lot of the fans think, maybe not him. Rasheed's era is done, as much as when Ben Wallace were headed for the exit.

Same O'l Tayshaun Prince

Another overrated statement that's being made in the PistonLand is Tayshaun. He's consistency on both ends of the floor describes him as the good soldier of Michael Curry. Whatever is ask him, whether to defend, play on the 4 position, score, hustle, and anything a coach may command, he's there, no question ask. So how is it overrated to consider him hes one of the prime/key player of the Pistons. These are things that he has been doing already in the past six season, so theres no surprise. Although his stat has been improving year after year, he's performance against Lebron and Pierce is nothing but Same O'l.

A.I. Offense does not matter one bit

I don't care if he scores 50 points every night, well maybe I would if it guarantees a win, but that would not happen even in basketball heaven, because in order for a team to win, you've got to get stops, you can't just trade baskets. A.I. scoring ability and mentality is worthless, because every single opposing teams runs their offense through the person whom A.I. is guarding. I'm not talking about A.I.'s effort of playing defense, I'm talking about the reality of him being barely 5 foot and not mention his weight. Even a skinny Barbosa could take advantage of A.I.'s frame. Consequently, this became a domino effect. This has forced the frontcourt to provide help defense almost every single time the opposing team run their offense, commonly on pick and roll. A.I.'s defense became contagious that Pistons defense became stale, and its worst knowing their coach has a strong pride about playing defense.

Michael Curry Defense-Offense

The expectation when Curry step up on taking the leadership of a successful team was pretty simple. Get rid of the complacent and emphasize defensive intensity to the guys. Well, its fair to say that those were achieved, the problem is, those things were the things missing during the Flip Saunders era and there's more things missing in this era, for example, offensive efficiency, which was not lacking during Flip's time. When offense is a problem, this could usually get resolved by focusing on the defensive side, which is what Curry emphasize, but once you see your team getting lost and eating up 20 seconds of the shot clock then it's pretty obvious they have no clue what to run. Defensive effort that converts to offensive efficiency only works on Larry Brown's playbook. But Curry, might want to give Flip a call or maybe Larry Brown. Does he even have a playbook, that people may want to see in the 4th quarter when the team has lost it.