Detroit Bad Boys

PistonPowered 3-on-3: Judging Dumars

2012-02-11T03:41:34Z

PistonPowered 3-on-3: Judging Dumars

Dan Feldman and Patrick Hayes of PistonPowered invited me to join a three-man roundtable to judge the career and current job standing of Joe Dumars. Both the good things and the bad are well-represented by all three. Be sure to check out the rest of Joe Dumars week and the solid coverage at PistonPowered.

Nets at Pistons: Star Wars Night at the Palace

2012-02-10T18:21:00Z

The first 10,000 fans at the Palace tonight will win a free Star Wars movie poster. Oh the irony. Additionally, there will be 30 Star Wars characters around the Palace, in costume, to greet fans. Sadly, Char Char Binks will not be in attendance, he's still out with a sore ankle.

Game Tips at 7:30 P.M. EST

New Jersey Nets: 8 - 19 (5 - 10 road)

Detroit Pistons: 7 - 20 (5 - 8 home)

The Situation:

The pride of the hopeful Russian emperor attempts to strike back tonight, having been defeated by the forceful play of Greg Monroe on Wednesday (get it? forceful?. It was the last the Pistons would ever see of the Nets in New Jersey, but they are taking the fight to our own, wintry turf tonight (spoiler alert: the Nets will ultimately reveal an armed and fully operational battle station in Brooklyn next season). Yeah, I could keep the Star Wars references up throughout this whole preview, I'm just that nerdy. But I won't put you all through that.

We've played the Nets twice already this month, and I'm giving up so much material though. Old Ben? Jodda the Hut? The aforementioned Char Char Binks, who single-handedly ruined Episode 1? So much material. I could write a paragraph about how Tayshaun Prince reminds me of C-3PO, a whiny, a stiff robot. I could write another paragraph about whether Jonas Jerebko is Luke Skywalker, a bright and annoyingly pure jedi, or Han Solo, a dashing rogue who totally just Greedo'd Jason Smith the other night. I'm gonna go with the latter. JoHan JerebSolo.

Okay fine, I'll give it a rest.

Keys to the Game:

Feed the Wookie: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a wookie. Sure, you could let C-3PO attempt another isolation play, but droids don't pull people's arms out of their socket when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.

Jump to Light Speed - We're not going to outrun imperial cruisers at this pace, so get R2 (Larry Frank. Larry Frank is clearly R2D2) to fix the hyperspeed thingy and push the pace a bit.

Defend Echo Base - They have the firepower to penetrate the seat of the rebel alliance, so prevent them even getting there in the first place.

Question of the Game:

Is Anthony Davis the prophesied one who will bring balance to the force? Does Mike Payne live in his mom's basement?

Advanced Stats Snapshot: Monroe snubbed and Macklin's good (?) edition

2012-02-10T16:28:31Z

The Pistons are playing their best basketball of the season. After winning three consecutive games, the Pistons find themselves at third to worst in the Eastern Conference, but only four games (in the win column) out of the eight seed. In absolute terms, four games may not seem insurmountable. Relatively speaking, this team has managed to win only seven times in twenty-seven tries. Winning four games, in other words, isn’t that simple.

In any case, I jumped on the Unibrow/Sullinger bandwagon a long time ago, and fortunately for likeminded Pistons fans, the statistical production of this group bodes well for that outcome. If current efficiency differentials hold, this team will be expected to finish the season 14-52, or squarely in the mix for a top-three pick.

Here’s a quick peek at how three of the most popular advanced metrics allocate the (lack) of Pistons success this season. My thoughts after the jump, yours in the comments. (Use the Wide view to see the table fully)

2011-2012 Detroit Pistons (through 27 games)
Name	Position	Games Played	Minutes Played	Wins Produced per 48	Wins Produced	WS48	PER
Greg Monroe	C	27	890	0.197	3.65	0.163	23.79
Jonas Jerebko	SF	27	700	0.144	2.1	0.093	14.73
Ben Wallace	C	26	371	0.135	1.05	0.024	9.12
Rodney Stuckey	PG	22	642	0.066	0.88	0.089	16.54
Jason Maxiell	PF	26	510	0.045	0.48	0.022	11.09
Vernon Macklin	PF	13	63	0.24	0.32	0.138	19.22
Tayshaun Prince	SF	25	830	0.011	0.19	0.012	12.17
Charlie Villanueva	PF	2	6	0.045	0.01	-0.033	8.91
Damien Wilkins	SF	24	407	0	0	-0.018	6.01
Walker Russell	G	12	220	0	0	-0.036	8.93
Ben Gordon	SG	16	518	-0.007	-0.07	0.012	12.65
Will Bynum	PG	9	129	-0.166	-0.45	-0.073	9.36
Brandon Knight	G	27	867	-0.04	-0.72	-0.016	10.65
Austin Daye	PF	22	353	-0.19	-1.4	-0.073	7.94

There won’t be many surprises to the Pistons faithful here. Frank is trying to cut steak with a plastic butter knife from Qdoba that broke in half when he took it out of the wrapper. As Mike Payne has observed several times over the course of the season, the Pistons are getting blown out so often that Frank rarely gets the opportunity to out-coach the opposition. The individual numbers illustrate that fact.

For Wins Produced/48 and Win Shares/48, "average" is .100. For PER, "average" is 15. Frank can’t even field an "average" starting lineup, by these metrics, much less a full rotation. In other words, no matter who Frank starts, brings off the bench, or benches, the Pistons are almost always expected to lose based on efficiency differential and the metrics derived from them.

Two other quick points, the first about the All Star reserves and the second about Vernon Macklin.

Many Pistons fans believe that Greg Monroe was snubbed from the All Star reserves. I get the sentiment.

However, by Wins Produced and Win Shares, Hibbert wasn’t a bad selection. Monroe has a slight edge by both metrics, true, but Hibbert is having a career year that is contributing to Indiana’s rebirth as a franchise. I would love to have seen The Moose win out, but it’s perfectly understandable that the coaches would select a player like Hibbert from a team like Indiana. Deserved or not, players playing for good teams often get the nod.

Additionally, Ryan Anderson is probably an even bigger snub as far as big men in the East. Dude is having a brilliant season for Orlando that has been overshadowed by Dwight Howard’s drama. I’d have selected him over Chris Bosh or Roy Hibbert in a heartbeat. Arguably, he’s been Orlando’s most important player.

And of course, Tyson Chandler wouldn't be an All Star. He was only the dominant center for last year's championship team who continues to play brilliant basketball.

That said, Moose’s time will come. My fear for Moose’s sake has been that his lack of flash won’t get him the attention his production says he deserves. This year, perhaps that factored in to the All Star decisions in a small way. But his brilliant numbers can’t be overlooked indefinitely. Averaging a double double is amazing for anyone, and lest we forget, Monroe is still only twenty-one years old. Twenty one years old, four years away from when players tend to hit their primes. Franchise cornerstone now, All Star in the future, guarnasheed.

On to Macklin.

Ultimately, I think Mike Payne is likely right about Macklin. Macklin put up some ugly numbers in college, he’s relatively old for a rookie, and he hasn’t established himself as a rotation player in a depleted Pistons front court. He’s probably not an NBA-caliber player.

But his per minute numbers have been good, and I would say he has looked as good as front court player not named Monroe when he’s had the chance.

Yes, super small sample size. Yes, garbage minutes against other team’s C squads.

But what can it possibly hurt to play him?

If his college performance is ultimately the indicator of the player he is, no worries. He can be waived this summer when warranted, and we won’t accidentally win too many games to lower the odds of a high draft pick. But if he has managed to become the exceptionally rare player who is better as a twenty-five year old rookie than he ever was as a collegiate player, wouldn’t we all want to know that for sure? For all his flaws, he is a big, bruising, blue collar guy that on paper would be a great fit in a big man rotation built around Monroe.

Random question of the day: why does it feel like the Pistons have only played against the Nets and the Bucks?

All-Star Reserves Announced, Minus Greg Monroe

2012-02-10T00:28:54Z

All-Star Reserves Announced, Minus Greg Monroe

[cuss words]

Educate the masses on Tayshaun Prince's favorite word with this awesome t-shirt from Off the Chest....

2012-02-09T21:02:35Z

Educate the masses on Tayshaun Prince's favorite word with this awesome t-shirt from Off the Chest. I just ordered one.

(Pistons fans who prefer to remember happier times may like this one.)

3 wins in a row: Pistons 99, Nets 92

2012-02-09T06:38:58Z

The Pistons won a game on Wednesday night -- their third in a row. That's called a winning streak; it has happened before. Just not this season. If Detroit does the unthinkable and wins a fourth in a row on Friday, it'll equal their win total through the first 24 games. Now, let's jack it up.

I know, I know; the Pistons won a game, but potentially hurt their lottery odds. That said, when the Pistons win, especially in this fashion, I'm never going to be one to complain. I mean, a Jonas Jerebko "foreign facial"? A clutch three from Brandon Knight? A Greg Monroe driving tomahawk slam dunk shot? It was the future doing some exciting things to make sure a one-time 18-point lead didn't slip away, albeit against an equally bad team playing without any energy. The Pistons went around the world twice for its fans tonight, and guess what? They're still the fourth worst team in the NBA with plenty of lotto balls in their back pockets.

***

Monroe led the way with his 14th double-double of the season (and eighth in the last nine games) -- 20 points on 10-for-16 shooting and 12 rebounds. Jerebko added 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Ben Gordon returned to the lineup with 14 points (on 6-for-7 shooting) and five rebounds.

The Pistons won despite Deron Williams' best effort to remain perfect against the Pistons; he dropped 34 points and assisted on seven baskets. Speaking of assists, the Pistons had a season-high 29.

Box Score
Pistons shot a season-best 53-percent. The Nets started 3-for-16 and wound up shooting only 42-percent, hitting six fewer shots than Detroit despite taking five more.
Stuckey was 5-for-9 with six assists (and some real pretty dimes, too). HEY!
Knight is the latest Piston to don a mask. He started slow, turning it over 3 times in the first quarter (a full turnover more than his previous 12-game average) and shooting 1-for-3 before half, but finished the game with 13 points on 4-for-10 shooting and four assists.
I'm convinced Ben Wallace, who only played a little under 13 minutes, would've fulfilled his PER 36. That would've been about 12 rebounds, six steals, and three blocks.
Maxiell had a nice slam and a block that my future babies felt.
Strong nine-plus minutes from Walker Russell -- five points and three assists.

Roll Call: The Boourns, Sean_Corp, tads, bugman222, Ra's Head, Mike Payne, netsfanrasmus, V., CinnamonToastCrunch, Packey, BandWagonerPaysTheDues, Shinons*, W. Stones, Toledo Joe, vr67, Trout Jefferson, JP423, JumpingBlob, gordbrown, blubomber17, JohnAbruzzi, madpoopz, Packfill, curlyfries, aussiepiston, dandresden, millsgiles, garrettelliott, Teal Stallion, Lemins, Skylar
Total Users: 31
Total Posts: 509
Total Threads: 1

Name	# of Posts
Trout Jefferson	117
BandWagonerPaysTheDues	112
Ra's Head	43
tads	39
bugman222	30
Shinons*	25
dandresden	24
Packey	17
JumpingBlob	16
JP423	11
garrettelliott	9
Mike Payne	9
vr67	8
madpoopz	7
V.	7
Toledo Joe	5
blubomber17	4
Skylar	4
millsgiles	3
aussiepiston	3
The Boourns	3
CinnamonToastCrunch	2
gordbrown	2
Sean_Corp	2
Lemins	1
netsfanrasmus	1
Teal Stallion	1
Packfill	1
JohnAbruzzi	1
W. Stones	1
curlyfries	1

Pistons at Nets: Greg Monroe vs. Shelden Williams ... seriously

2012-02-08T20:31:00Z

Two of the five worst teams in the NBA face off tonight as the Detroit Pistons play the New Jersey Nets in the first game of a home-and-home. While the Pistons are waiting out the onerous contracts of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva as they chart a path to respectability, the Nets are playing a waiting game of their own -- the Dwight Howard Waiting Game.

If New Jersey can swing a trade for the big man, the odds of being able to re-sign point guard Deron Williams greatly increase, which would give the Nets two great building blocks as they move into new digs in Brooklyn. If they don't land Howard, Williams might leave in free agency or be traded for pennies on the dollar, leaving the Nets with about $40 million in cap space and nobody to spend it on.

In the meantime, these two bottom feeders will battle for pride on the court while their respective fanbases root for lottery balls off the court. Not to say that I don't want the Pistons to win while I'm watching them, but once it's over and i accept the inevitable defeat, I click on over to watch Kentucky, Kansas, UConn and North Carolina. And dream. Just sayin'.

Game Tips at 7:30 P.M. EST

Detroit Pistons: 6 - 20 (1 - 12 road)

New Jersey Nets: 8 - 18 (3 - 8 home)

The Situation:

According to Keith Langlois, there is a chance the trio of Brandon Knight, Gordon and Will Bynum will all be available for the game tonight. If that happens, it will be interesting to see how the minutes shake out.

On the other hand, the M*A*S*H list for the Nets is pretty significant, with MarShon Brooks, Brook Lopez, Damion James, Memhet Okur, Deshawn Stevenson and Keith Bogans all out with various injuries. Those injuries mean that the Nets big-man rotation consists of the productive big man everyone loves to hate in Kris Humphries, top-five bust Shelden Williams, first-round bust Johan Petro and rookie second-round pick Jordan Williams.

In the Nets previous loss to the Chicago Bulls, those players combined for 12-for-27 shooting, 14 rebounds, and zero blocks in a combined 88 minutes,14 seconds of action. I know the Pistons aren't the Bulls, far from it in fact, but Detroit must take advantage of the Nets front line if it wants to be successful.

Keys of the Game:

Set the Moose loose - Shelden Williams is still in the NBA because he is 6-foot-9 and was at one time a respectable defender. But Greg Monroe's offense, even in only his second year, is much better than Williams' defense. And the disparity will grow as New Jersey gets into its bench. Moose needs the ball early and often, and then even oftener.

Prevent guard penetration - The only time New Jersey is effective is when Deron Williams and backup Jordan Farmar can dictate things on the offensive end. Williams is having a terrible time shooting the ball this year, hovering at around 40 percent, including 33 percent from three. But if the Pistons allow him to penetrate he is still one of the best in the NBA at finding his teammates' open shots, including sharpshooter Anthony Marrow who hits 45 percent from long range.

Farmar is having the best season of his career with an insane 59 percent true-shooting percentage. The Pistons should key on him when the bench players are on the floor and make other (offensively inept) players beat them.

Defend the paint, rebound solid rotations - The Pistons defense has been a mess this season and that is putting things kindly. In the whirlwind that has been the first quarter of this season the Pistons have hardly had a moment to breathe let alone practice. Well, the Pistons are coming off of two consecutive victories and have had the past three days off. I'm assuming the team put that time to good use with some solid practices, and I look for the proof of that effort to be on display tonight .

Questions of the Game:

This is a scary question but I'll ask it anyway: Who is the second-best player on the Detroit Pistons? It shouldn't be as hard a question to answer as it is. Rank the Williamses: The Nets roster consists of Deron Williams, Shawne Williams, Shelden Williams and Jordan Williams. Rank them from best to worst.

Poll

Who is the Detroit Pistons second-best player?

Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight included in NBA's Rising Stars Challenge roster pool

2012-02-08T20:30:56Z

It's official: Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight are headed to All-Star Weekend. From the Pistons' press release:

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The National Basketball Association announced today that Detroit Pistons players Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight have been selected for the 2012 BBVA Rising Stars Challenge to be held on Friday, Feb. 24, in Orlando during NBA All-Star 2012.

Monroe is one of three Pistons' players to appear in all 26 games this season, averaging team-highs in points (16.3 ppg) and rebounds (9.9 rpg) in 32.9 minutes per game. Among NBA leaders he ranks 11th in field goal percentage (second among NBA sophomores and third among NBA Eastern Conference centers), 13th in rebounds (third among NBA sophomores and T-3rd among NBA Eastern Conference centers) and 31st in scoring (second among NBA sophomores and NBA Eastern Conference centers). His 10 double-doubles during the month of January were the most for a Pistons player during that month since Bill Laimbeer recorded 14 during the 1986-87 season and Dennis Rodman tallied 11 during the 1991-92 season. Monroe was a member of the Rookie Team during last year's event at NBA All-Star 2011 in Los Angeles where the Rookies won for the second consecutive year, 148-140.

Knight has appeared in 26 games (20 starts), averaging 12.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 32.0 minutes per game. Amongst NBA rookie leaders the 6-foot-3 guard ranks second in scoring and minutes played, third in field goal percentage (.405), fourth in assists, T-6th in three-point field goal percentage (.352), ninth in steals (0.69 spg) and 10th in rebounds. His 38 three-point field goals made ranks first amongst current NBA rookies and second-most among rookies in Pistons franchise history (Lindsey Hunter - 69).

If you haven't been paying attention, the Rookie-Sophomore game has a new twist, with rosters being drafted by Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal from a pool of first- and second-year players. The draft takes place on Feb. 16, and the game itself will be played on Feb. 24. SB Nation NBA has the full pool of players that will be joining Monroe and Knight.