Tinkering with the rotation

Going to move a little bit faster through some parts of the season. Prior to this set of games I decided a change was necessary in the lineups. I removed Will Bynum's minutes completely and split them up between English and Maggette, turned Prince into a starter in name only and decided that English and Jerebko would be closers while Stuckey and Prince watched from the pine. How did it work out?

Darko returns to The Palace

 Game #6 DETROIT 103, Boston 90

A 13 point win at home to move to 5-1 on the year over a tough Celtics team. BK did a great job shutting down Rondo, English/Jerebko combined for 27 off the bench and Monroe goes for 28 and 19 with 2 blocks. Drummond stinks it up with 2 points and 4 rebounds and a game full of trash talk from KG - clearly he got in his head but the kid will be fine and we'll gladly take the W.
Player of the Game : Greg Monroe

Missing the days of C-Webb

Game #7 Detroit 116, SACRAMENTO 98

We're starting a grueling road trip out West here but its off to a good start. The Kings aren't that great of a team and we take an easy one thanks to a 40 point 3rd quarter. Drummond remains in funk with only 3 rebounds but he did manage 4 blocks. He needs to realize he's not going to score if he doesn't rebound because he's not much of an offensive option on his own. Knight and Stuckey combine for 45, Monroe goes for 34 and 10 and Prince scores only 2 to Jerebko's 13 as that time share is in full effect now. Key stat in this one -we shot 10/20 from downtown to Sacramento's 3/16.
Player of the Game : Greg Monroe

First the World Series, now this

Game #8 Detroit 94, GOLDEN STATE 115

I had hoped we could snag a win here because it was the first of back to back games on this roadie with the Lakers on tap tomorrow but it was not to be. Monroe gave us 25 and 9 but 5 turnovers, English and Jerebko combined for 24 off the bench and Stuckey had 14. I'm starting to wonder how much longer we can justify giving Prince 24 or so minutes for only 6 points. Drummond fouls out in 26 minutes and BK shoots a rough 3/11. Lee goes for 24 with 17 boards and 4 steals, Steph Curry 21 and Bogut 20.
                                                 Player of the Game : David Lee

Kobes and Nashes and Howards, Oh My!

Game #9 Detroit 89, LOS ANGELES (L) 101

I kind of knew coming off a game the night before that this was going to be ugly and it was. Drummond fouls out in 23 minutes against D12, Howard and Gasol hold Monroe to 19 and only 5 boards while combining for 36 points and 23 rebounds of their own and Kobe lights us up for 29. Stuckey and English never had a chance.
Player of the Game : Kobe Bryant

Did someone say Nash?

Game #10 Detroit 101, PHOENIX 90

We finish off the road trip at the 3-7 Suns and come out with a W. To go 2-2 on this West Coast swing is alright. We go as The Moose goes and Monroe torched the Suns for 34 and 10 with 4 steals. A nice effort by Maxiell off the bench for a double-double. However it looks like the season is catching up with the other kids. Drummond plays only 14 minutes because of foul trouble, BK with 6, Jerebko with 5, English with 6, and Maggette sprains his wrist. Dudley leads PHX with 23.
Player of the Game : Greg Monroe

Team Recap
Rodney Stuckey's increased production as of late has gotten us a couple phone calls. The Kings call and offer Jason Thompson and Aaron Brooks for Stuckey and a 2nd. I like both players and with Drummond's struggles I could definitely get behind a Thompson/Monroe front court but JT has four more years to go on his deal after this one so that's a no go. Atlanta wants to do a deal with Zaza Pachulia for Stuckey - part of me says that's not enough for Stuckey but he is in a contract year and would at least be serviceable. I tell them I will get back with them.

Standings wise we lead the Bulls by a game and a half and trail both the Heat and Knicks for best record in the conference. Out West the Lakers are 8-1 with the Clippers and Thunder right behind them.

Maggette sprained his wrist against the Suns - he says he is ok to play but he's just a role player when he's 100% so we're going to hold Singler up from his D-league assignment and let him play until Maggette is healthy. I'm also wondering if Drummond should go to the bench. Teams have realized they can attack him and while he's going to block some shots he's also picking up a ton of fouls. It sort of makes the Hawks offer a bit more interesting because we can keep Monroe at PF and let Zaza and Drummond split up the C minutes. I think we'll see where we stand after the next two - we host Cleveland and go to Boston in a back to back set. Hopefully we can at least get a split there.

A recap and a running blog...

Game #4 - Detroit 104, TORONTO 91

Not as scary as the logo suggests

After the letdown in Charlotte we hopped a plane and headed for Canada to take on the Raptors. Thankfully despite having a solid PG in Kyle Lowry and a promising rookie center in Valanciunas they're not a deep or imposing team.

Our coaching staff felt the mismatch to try and exploit this game was our rising star Greg Monroe against Andrea Bargnani. Bargs is a fine offensive player but he's soft on D and doesn't hit the boards well. Really outside of Valanciunas there was no inside force to fear and even he's just a rookie. My hat is off to Lawrence Frank for a fine gameplan as we were able to score 64 points in the paint and had an 18-4 advantage in second chance points.

Of course the star of the show was Greg Monroe. Monroe played 41 minutes, scored 39 points on 17/28 shooting with 15 boards and 3 steals. While Monroe did the heavy lifting he was not alone in the efforts. Knight controlled the offensive pace with 10 assists, Drummond had 10 boards and 3 blocks and low and behold Rodney Stuckey showed up for a game and scored 20 points and played some good defense for a change holding DeMar DeRozan to 3/11 shooting and 6 points.

For the Raps, Kyle Lowry lead the way missing a triple double by a single rebound and finishing with 20 poitns, 12 assists and 9 boards while Bargnani contributed 21 points (but only 5 rebounds) and Valanciunas went for 16 and 8.

Up next comes a big test going into Brooklyn and their new arena. The new look Nets are 3-0 and while we are 3-1 two of those wins have been Washington and Toronto so not exactly world beaters.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Greg Monroe
39 points
15 rebounds
3 steals




Game #5 - Detroit 118, BROOKLYN 111

In the house that Jay Z built

For this game I decided to try a running blog of the game to see how it felt. Feel free to leave feedback on whether you like this format or not.

1Q - 10m : Drummond strips Humphries and then finishes the jam on the break. Next possession offensive rebound and a putback. Man I love this kid.

1Q - 7m : 5 minutes in and the two-fifths of the starting lineup I don't like is back at it. Stuckey bricks a three and turns it over on the following possession while on the other end Tayshaun Prince has opened a drive-thru for Gerald Wallace. An uneasy 14-6 lead for us at this point.

1Q - 6m : Brook Lopez started on the bench with a nagging injury so Humpries has been at center. Drummond swatted one of his attempts but he's also beaten Drummond off the dribble twice now and has 8 points. Time to switch Monroe to C and bring in Jonas.

1Q - 4:30m : Jerebko has an off board and putback and then drive for a dunk in 90 seconds. Love the hustle. Stuckey apparently reads the blog mid quarter and suddenly has 8 points and 4 boards and has held Joe Johnson scoreless and Tayshaun got beat off the bounce yet again so he's going to the pine for now.

1Q - 3m : A bad Stuckey pass leads to a Brooklyn fast break but on the other end Monroe posterizes Gerald Wallace who came to help when he took Hump off the dribble. Monroe with 10 already and a 26-14 Detroit lead.

EO1Q : A sloppy end gives us a 33-22 lead. Brooklyn starters play the entire first and D-Will is 0/6. Jonas has 6 off the bench but Bynum, English and Max have combined for nothing.

2Q - 9m : We've opened a 15 point lead and Avery Johnson couldn't wait to put Johnson, Blatche and Humphries back in. I guess Lopez must be worse off that I assumed. BK hasn't scored for us but has kept D-Will to 0/8 shooting so I won't complain.

2Q - 8m : Monroe with a sweet finish over Blatche and D-Will. Monroe has 18 and Blatche clearly can't stop him.

2Q - 5m : The Nets have gone zone only to see Drummond, Monroe and Knight bury shots on three straight possessions. We lead 52-28 on 61% shooting - BKL shooting 34%

2Q - 4:30m : Humphries scores on Drummond, Drummond bricks an ill-advised jumper against the zone and then Hump does it again on the other end. He has 16 and timeout Pistons so Lawrence can give Andre an earful.

2Q - 3m : Humphries now has 18 and we're going to run a double at him for a bit and see if that slows him up. Who would have thought his best night scoring in his life would not involve Kim Kardashian?

2Q - 1:40m : Two Blatche free throws and we're down to a 13 point lead. BK picked up his 3rd foul and it would be nice if Stuckey, Maggette and Prince could pick up some offense to close out the half.

2Q - :30s : Drummond in to make sure Monroe doesn't pick up a 3rd foul and he shoots a three. Not an "oh the shot clock is at two and I better fire" three - just a "I forgot I'm a 6-11 center with a questionable at best jumper from short range" three. W.T.F. He makes up for it on D with a steal and a jam on the lob on the break. Rookies....

Half - we lead 58-48 but this one should have been over already. Very much like the Charlotte game and it makes me nervous they are this close with Williams playing like crap. Tayshaun has 0 points - I'd like to bring Jerebko out to start the 2nd half but then we would have zero bench scoring.

3Q - 9:40m : Stuckey with his 5th TO, Drummond gets blocked by Brook Lopez who I guess Johnson decided should be on the floor, Lopez hits two Js and Gerald Wallace buries one in Prince's face. 7-0 Brooklyn run and a timeout.

3Q - 6m : Knight with a steal and two buckets and Jerebko off the bench for 6 quick points to get to 18 for the night. Monroe with his first bucket of the half and we're up 70-59. As hard as it is to say but I see no reason why Prince should be starting over Jerebko at this point.

3Q - 5:30m : On cue JJ buries a 3 - 21 points on 9/11 shooting. LOVE that guy.

3Q - 3m : Will Bynum comes in, promptly misses a 3 and is sent right back to the bench. We don't need missed threes by bench players up 11. We need the clock to tick away and the lead to remain about that until the starters come back. This also means Stuckey and his 5 TOs are running the point now.

3Q - :43s : Monroe picks up his 3rd foul and with a 13 point lead Frank inserts Slava Kravtsov for his first regular season action. Seconds later Brook Lopez blows by him for a dunk. Welcome to the NBA Slava! 3rd ends with a 86-77 lead.

4Q - 11:40m : Slava opens the 4th quarter by hammering Kris Humphries and possibly muttering "I must break you" under his breath. Stuckey, Maggette, Prince, Maxiell and Slava on the floor to open quarter. Frank hoping BK, Jonas and Monroe will carry them to the finish and Prince realizes he's quickly been relegated to "the guy that starts and its ok if he blows because we'd rather have someone better come off the bench" status.

4Q - 10:30m : A Mirza Teletovic three cuts it to 5 and brings a timeout and new 5 for the Pistons on the floor. 88-83 Detroit. English with a huge triple out of the timeout.

4Q - 9m : Monroe travels, G-Wallace fills one up and then rejects a Jerebko shot. Nets within 4 now and once again we look like we forget how to play in the 4th.

4Q - 8m : Monroe called for another travel. Frank complains. Blatche called for a travel on next possession. The NBA...where Andre Blatche's best use is for makeup calls. It's FANtastic!

4Q - 6m : Gerald Wallace drills a triple to give him 20. Jerebko answers with a bucket giving him 23. Monroe leads all with 29 and Drummond picks up foul number 5 with 6:13 to go. Lopez hits two free throws and its 100-98 Detroit.

4Q - 5m : Deron Williams hits two free throws giving Brooklyn a 102-100 lead. Williams is 1/10 on the night and we've blown a 20+ point lead now. Good times.

4Q - 3m : Monroe's dunk gives him 32 on the night and tie game.

4Q - 1:30m : Joe Johnson hits two free throws but Andre Drummond hits a prayer with the shot clock at one to tie the game. A Monroe block leads to a Kim English throwdown to give us a 2 point lead.

4Q - 1m : English with a dagger putting us up four. Drummond with a steal and Jerebko finishes with a dunk. 113-107 time out Brooklyn.

Final : Deron bricks a few more, Knight hits a couple FTs, meaningless baskets are traded and its a 118-111 road win. Deron had 17 assists but shot 2/13 for 11 points. Great D by BK tonight and he did the job offensively too with 15 and 8. Jonas finishes with 25, Drummond with 19 and Kim English closes out the game with some huge buckets on his way to 9 points. And not surprisingly Greg Monroe is player of the game with 32/13 with a side of 2 steals and a block. The Moose is a beast!


PLAYER OF THE GAME

Greg Monroe
32 points
13 rebounds
2 steals



SEASON THOUGHTS

We now sit at 4-1 on the season and I think that despite it only being 5 games in we might have a legitimate shot at the playoffs. We have Boston next which will give us our first taste of the better teams in the league so I think that will be a good measuring stick. This team is definitely not without flaws though. Jerebko has easily outplayed Prince and I was not surprised in the least that with Stuckey and Prince on the floor the game slipped away but with English and Jerebko we regained the lead and finished off Brooklyn. I don't know that those guys should start but I think they need to be closing the game out and playing key minutes while I look for a trade for Prince and Stuckey.

One thing I am concerned about is our depth at guard. Will Bynum is just terrible and is pretty much in the realm of Daye and Villanueva as guys I don't want to see on the floor anymore. Problem is he is all we have as a backup PG. Rumor has it though that Jason Kidd isn't too happy in New York. Its crazy that he has a a contract that will last through his 41st birthday but its only $3 million a year. We couldn't give him any more PG time here than New York does but I certainly wouldn't mind him playing 10-15 minutes at the two spot if we decided to go with English. I may make a phone call to the Knicks front office and see what's up.

A Decent Start

Game #1 - DETROIT 120, Indiana 97

We'll meet again

Well as we prepared for the opening game of the season a giant monkey wrench was tossed into our long term plans. Apparently the Thunder decided to get cheap and traded James Harden away to the Rockets who had no problem offering him the big extension he was after so we can scratch that name off the list.

No worries though, we have a season to get to and we kicked it off by hosting division rival Indiana. The Pacers are a tough ball club with a kid I would love to have on our team (Paul George) and they jumped all over us early leading 27-18 after one. We fought back though and managed to take a 3 point lead into the break. After 3 we held onto only a two point lead and that's when the floodgates opened. Pacers coach Frank Vogel decided to throw some zone into the mix and we responded in a big way. Jonas Jerebko caught fire off the bench knocking down two triples on his way to 22 points in only 25 minutes. The offensive spark coupled with some nasty shutdown defense from our frontcourt future studs Drummond and Monroe was just too much. The Pacers would score only 15 points in the 4th to our 36 and that's all she wrote.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Greg Monroe
25 points
9 rebounds
4 steals


Monroe was a beast and I think could have an all-star season. I decided the best thing to do with Andre Drummond was just throw him into the fire. He started and only played 25 minutes due to foul trouble but those minutes showed both how raw he is (5 PF, 4/15 shooting) and how good he can be (4 steals, 3 blocks). Brandon Knight did not disappoint with a very efficient 16 points, 8 assists and 2 steals. Danny Granger led the Pacers with 30 points and Tayshaun proved he's definitely lost something defensively - a big reason why he's not in the long term plans here.

Nobody beats the Wiz...but we did

Game #2 - DETROIT 106, Washington 98

Feeling good about our opening game we were looking forward to hosting the Wiz who came in 0-1 and for the second game in a row we held an opponent to under 100 points. Lawrence Frank preaches solid defense and that's the kind of coach I like and it looks like the players are buying in. Our 3 point shot deserted us as we went 1 for 6 from deep and we shot an atrocious 67.5% on a whopping 40 free throw attempts. Monroe and Knight accounted for more than half the attempts but only combined for 14/24. Those two need to be better than that if we're going to beat the better competition.


PLAYER OF THE GAME

Greg Monroe
28 points
8 rebounds
1 block

Despite his poor performance at the stripe Monroe once again takes home player of the game honors. He gutted out 41 minutes and like I said, I see a franchise player here. Andre Drummond once again was limited to 24 minutes - we're going to have to work with him defensively. He's an athletic freak and blocked 4 shots while altering another two or three but he must rotate quicker in help and stop going for shot fakes. Imagine what he could do in 30-35 minutes! BK was brutal from the floor going 0/6 but at least he put up 9 assists and Rodney Stuckey is wearing out his welcome quickly with me. 12 points in 33 minutes is one thing but 5 turnovers isn't going to fly. I've never been a Stuckey guy - I never thought he was a PG and now I am not so sure he's even a good shooting guard. 

In one other game note we suffered our first injury of the season. Lawrence Frank inexplicably inserted Austin Daye into the game. Daye played a total of two minutes and came away with a sprained finger. No word of the injury happened during the two minutes of on court time or from being surprised being sent into the game while busy tweeting from the end of the bench. Needless to say he won't be missed.

Don't call us the LOLcats

Game #3 - Detroit 112, CHARLOTTE 114

Our first test on the road this season and thankfully it was against the lowly Bobcats. The Bobcats were off to an unsurprising 0-2 start so we were hoping for an opportunity to start 3-0 on the year. We started this one with a big time defensive effort. We came away with steals on 4 early possessions and jumped out to a big first quarter lead. It looked like we would be on cruise control in this one. However Ben Gordon came in off the bench in apparently an effort to spite his former team and dropped a couple threes. That plus some cold shooting on our part only let us go into the half with a 58-43 lead. Bismack Biyombo looked solid for the 'Cats going for 10 points, 5 boards and 2 blocks in the half while Tayshaun admittedly played a very good first half with 8 points, 7 boards, 3 steals and a block.

A couple things stood out in the first half. On the good side - Jonas Jerebko entered the game and within 15 seconds had an offensive board that led to a Monroe bucket. He knocked down a three at a crucial junction too. Kim English got some run too and impressed by drawing an offensive foul. Of course the reason he got some PT was because Rodney Stuckey stunk up the joint in the first half. I'm searching the rolodex as we speak for trade partners.

The second half started poorly - two quick whistles within thirty seconds sent Monroe to the bench with his 4th foul and me wondering if MJ made a visit with the refs at halftime. Never fear though because our Super Swede is here! JJ came in and started heating up again. He finished with 10 in the quarter. We also got key contributions from Maxiell with 6 off the bench and Kim English came up with 2 big steals and a triple in relief of Stuckey to lead us to an 84-75 lead after three.

The fourth quarter came and a chance to put the game out of reach quickly unraveled. The Bobcats dominance on the glass (40-27 at this point) finally started to catch up with us. Biyombo was a huge force and our offense went cold with back to back traveling possessions by Maggette and Stuckey. Then Stuckey apparently not happy enough with his 1 for 5 shooting day and costly turnover got T'd up and was sent to the bench. A Kemba Walker  triple would give the Bobcats their first lead of the game on the ensuing possession. We would fall behind by as many as five before Jerebko returned to the floor. A flurry of JJ buckets and a Monroe and-1 tied it up at 100 with just under 5 minutes to go.

With under a minute to go and down two we take timeout. Lawrence Frank decides to go pick and roll with Tayshaun and Monroe and Prince filled up a nice J off the pick to tie the game only to watch Biyombo score his 24th points of the game on the other end. Down two and ten seconds to go Frank inserted Maggette and decided to go for the win on a night we were getting pummeled physically. The Maggette three would not go and we dropped our first game.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Bismack Biyombo
24 points
10 rebounds
4 blocks


What more can be said? Monroe finished with 24/8, Jerebko with 21/5/3 steals off the bench, BK had 19...Drummond did a terrible job defensively although he had two huge blocks on a possession late to keep us in the game but Biyombo cannot score 24 points on you. Prince did nothing in the second half except the one jumper to tie the game and Stuckey is officially in the doghouse and I will be making calls looking for a trade.


AROUND THE LEAGUE

An exciting first week overall. Boston, New York and Dallas are all off to 3-0 starts and Dirk and Melo have been sick offensively averaging 34 a game each. We sit atop the Central at 2-1, 1/2 game in front of Chicago and we've got a tough stretch next week as we head into Toronto, Brooklyn and then home against the Celtics. In the meantime I'm off to work the phones and to talk to Lawrence Frank about our shooting guard position.

The Journey Begins...

So long Joe D - time to right the ship

Detroit has always been a proud city and part of that pride rests in the Pistons. First there was the "Bad Boys" era and the "Going To Work" era. Eras with unforgettable teams - championship teams. Of course there was also the "Teal" era and the current era which hopefully will one day be referred to as the "Pre GG" era. That's right, as of today I am in charge of the Detroit Pistons.

The first order of business is looking over what we've got. It's October 4, 2012 and the season is just weeks away so our roster is set going into the year and I'd like to break it down into three groups.

Group #1 : The Building Blocks
G Brandon Knight 6-3/177/1 exp
F Greg Monroe 6-11/247/2 exp
C Andre Drummond 6-11/279/R

If we're going to get back to prominence then these are the guys it will rest upon. This is our big three. The problem is they're 20, 23 and 19 respectively. The other problem is that the defending champs have this guy named LeBron, the Thunder have three far superior young players in Durant, Westbrook and Harden and the Lakers just teamed up Nash and D12 with Kobe and Pau. Needless to say I don't see a championship in the near future. We've got a 5 year plan - make the playoffs this year, win one series next year, win two series in year 3, get to the finals in year 4 and win it all in year 5. Lofty? Yup. Doable - we'll see.

Group #2 : The Glue Guys
G Kim English 6-8/192/R
F Jonas Jerebko 6-9/210/2 exp
F Kyle Singler 6-9/228/R

That's a short list and these guys aren't ever going to be stars but they are hustle guys. They'll do the dirty work and be solid role players. The kind of guys you want to be your 7th -9th guys. But that means we need a 4th-6th guy in order to make that work out.

Group #3 : The I Hope You're Renting Guys
G : Will Bynum, Rodney Stuckey
F: Tayshaun Prince, Corey Maggette, Jason Maxiell, Charlie Villanueva, Khris Middleton, Austin Daye
C : Slava Kratsov

These guys are the reason this job was open. Lucky the mistakes that were Maxiell, Daye and Maggette will be short lived and I will enjoy getting their $19 million off the books this offseason. Sadly we're saddled with Stuckey for one more year after this, Tayshaun for two more and I have no doubt Charlie V will be picking up his $8.6m player option this summer. I'm hoping that some contender will have an injury and will be interested in Tayshaun or Stuckey and I'm not going to lie...I'd give Charlie V away if someone wanted him. Sadly there will be no takers.

The good news is we have Monroe cheap next year so with a little luck and creativity we might be able to free up enough cap space to make a big run at someone as there are some marquee names that will be available. How nice would it be to bring a James Harden here? OKC has a lot of money tied up already. Maybe we'll get the chance to lure Harden away.

Coaching Staff
I'm pleased with Lawrence Frank as the head coach. He got something out of this team last year and he'll have every opportunity to be the guy who leads us back to the top.

D-League Assignments
Since we've got a full 15 man roster and the previous management regime thought it would be a great idea to carry 5 small forwards we might as well send a few guys down. No reason Singler and Middleton should sit in suits here when they could play in the NBDL.

Opening Day
We kick off the season Nov 1 at The Palace against the Pacers. They're an up and coming squad who surprised many people last year. Really I'd love to model the rebuilding here like Larry Bird did there. Make some smart picks, build a good young core and then be able to sign an underrated free agent like David West. And what I wouldn't give to have Paul George. Anyhow its time for the journey back to the top to begin.