khandor’s sports blog

Here’s something which is sure to set off palpitations at a plethora of sites with an interest in the Detroit Pistons … including, perhaps, here, here and here:

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Sources: Pistons mulling Tracy McGrady

DraftExpress.com’s Jonathan Givony reported earlier Saturday that the Pistons have already committed to sign McGrady to a one-year deal at the league’s $1.35 million veteran minimum, but one source close to the situation told ESPN.com that Pistons officials were “taking the weekend” to discuss the move.

Another source said Saturday night that no deal has been signed but that the parties are “in discussions.”

Nearly two weeks after a high-profile audition with the Bulls at their practice facility, McGrady appeared to have lost all hope of landing with the team he badly wanted to join when Chicago struck an agreement Friday with veteran swingman Keith Bogans.

But the Pistons have unexpectedly emerged as a suitor for McGrady after a quiet summer for Detroit that has been attributed in some league circles to owner Karen Davidson’s reluctance to spend given her well-chronicled desire to sell the team.

Bringing in McGrady at such a low cost would thus represent a low-risk, high-reward gamble for the Pistons. The 31-year-old is trying to resurrect his career after playing in just 30 games last season with Houston Rockets and New York Knicks thanks to a slow recovery from microfracture knee surgery.

The Pistons would appear to have little need at shooting guard or small forward — with Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and the recently re-signed Will Bynum on the roster — but Detroit personnel chief Joe Dumars has never shied away from reclamation projects and knows his team suffered from a lack of scoring punch last season.

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The only question is …

Will those palpitations reflect a genuine uptick in the level excitement for the team’s buoyed prospects next season, or be the precursor to a lethal heart attack.

Oh, my.

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Update:

Source: McGrady joining Pistons

At the conclusion of an 82 game schedule …

there are now 10 teams left with a legitimate opportunity to win this year’s league championship … none of which are the Mavericks [W2], Suns [W3], Nuggets [W4], Celtics [E4], Bucks [E6] or Bulls [E8], according to the recent history of the NBA.

Related:

What it takes to win the NBA Championship

Toronto Raptors [39-42] 111
DETROIT PISTONS [27-55] 97
Complete Game Info

PART 1 - The Twitter Effect

As soon as you read Charlie Villanueva’s tweet from yesterday afternoon …

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Pistons’ Charlie Villanueva guarantees win against Raptors

“Guarantee win tonight, yeah I said it,” is a tweet that appeared on Villanueva’s account about 2:35 p.m. today.

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you just knew that the Raptors would be good to go into Detroit last night and pummel the Pistons.

PART 2 - The Big Ben Effect

Although Ben Wallace/C has had a decent year, defensively, in his return to Detroit, it was rather comical to see the combinations of:

i. He and Jonas Jerebko
[-9 vs Bargnani/Johnson; +2 vs Bargnani/Turkoglu], or

ii. He and Charlie Villanueva
[-4 vs Bargnani/Johnson; -1 vs Bargnani/Turkoglu], or

iii. He and Tayshaun Prince
[-6 vs Bargnani/Johnson], or

iv. He and Jason Maxiell
[-6 vs Bargnani/Johnson]

attempt to guard a perimeter oriented C like Andrea Bargnani … who was shooting the ball well last night … and an energetic under-sized PF like Amir Johnson.

PART 3 - The John Kuester Effect

At the 10:14 mark of the 2nd quarter, with the Raptors leading by 3 points [28-31], Pistons’ head coach, John Kuester:

i. Replaced Ben Gordon/OG with Will Bynum/PG;
ii. Shifted Rodney Stuckey/PG to the OG position; and,
iii. Replaced Charlie Villanueva/PF with Jonas Jerebko/PF-SF;

while keeping Austin Daye/SF and Ben Wallace/C on the floor, against Toronto’s 5-man unit of:

Jarrett Jack, PG
Marco Belinelli, OG
DeMar DeRozan, SF
Hedo Turkoglu, PF and
Andrea Bargnani, C

Jay Triano did not respond with a substitution which created the following individual defensive match-ups for Detroit:

Bynum vs Jack
Stuckey vs Belinelli
Daye vs DeRozan
Jerebko vs Turkoglu, and
Wallace vs Bargnani.

This shift of 14 seconds produced a +2 gain for the Pistons.

At the 10:00 mark, however, Raptors’ head coach, Jay Triano, replaced Hedo Turkoglu/SF-PF with Amir Johnson/PF.

John Kuester did not respond with a substitution for the Pistons which created the following individual defensive match-ups for Detroit:

Bynum vs Jack
Stuckey vs Belinelli
Daye vs DeRozan
Jerebko vs Johnson, and
Wallace vs Bargnani.

This shift of 29 seconds produced a -2 loss for the Pistons.

At the 9:31 mark, Jay Triano replaced DeMar DeRozan/SF-OG with Sonny Weems.

John Kuester did not respond with a substitution for the Pistons which created the following individual defensive match-ups for Detroit:

Bynum vs Jack
Stuckey vs Belinelli
Daye vs Weems
Jerebko vs Johnson, and
Wallace vs Bargnani.

This shift of 1:44 produced a -4 loss for the Pistons … and was halted, temporarily, by an official’s time-out, with Detroit trailing by 7 points [32-39]. 

Coming out from this time-out, John Kuester responded by replacing Jonas Jerebko/PF-SF with Tayshaun Prince/SF.

Jay Triano did not respond with a substitution for the Raptors which created the following individual defensive match-ups for Detroit:

Bynum vs Jack
Stuckey vs Belinelli
Daye vs Weems
Prince vs Johnson, and
Wallace vs Bargnani.

This shift of 2:33 produced a -6 loss for the Pistons … and was halted by a regular time-out, called by Detroit, with Toronto leading by 13 points [34-47].

Coming out from this time-out, John Kuester:

i. Replaced Austin Daye with Ben Gordon/OG-PG;
ii. Shifted Rodney Stuckey/PG-OG to the Small Forward position; and,
iii. Replaced Ben Wallace/C with Jason Maxiell/PF;

while keeping Will Bynum and Tayshaun Prince on the floor, as the PG and PF, respectively.

Jay Triano did not respond with a substitution for the Raptors which created the following individual defensive match-ups for Detroit:

Bynum vs Jack
Gordon vs Belinelli
Stuckey vs Weems
Prince vs Johnson, and
Maxiell vs Bargnani.

This shift of 1:01 produced a -2 loss for the Pistons.

At the 4:13 mark, John Kuester:

i. Replaced Rodney Stuckey with Charlie Villanueva; and,
ii. Moved Tayshaun Prince back to the SF position.

Jay Triano did not respond with a substitution for the Raptors which created the following individual defensive match-ups for Detroit:

Bynum vs Jack
Gordon vs Belinelli
Prince vs Weems
Maxiell vs Johnson, and
Villanueva vs Bargnani.

This shift of 28 seconds produced a +2 gain for the Pistons … and, finally, stopped the Raptors’ run, with Detroit trailing by 13 points [36-49].

This is the type of poor personnel use …

[for example]

a. Having Ben Wallace attempt to check Andrea Bargnani
b. Playing Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey together;
c. Playing Will Bynum, Ben Gordon and Rodney Stuckey together;
d. Playing Tayshaun Prince at PF with Ben Wallace/C; and,
e. Failing to have Villanueva check Bargnani;

by John Kuester which has been responsibile for the bulk of the Pistons’ internal problems this season.

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If the Raptors could just play a steady diet of opponents the same quality as this year’s Pistons … re: coaches and players … then they would have been able to qualify for the playoffs a long time ago.

With a little more than 1 week left in the regular season schedule …

there are 10 teams with a legitimate opportunity to win this year’s league championship … none of which are the Mavericks, Nuggets, Suns, Celtics, Bucks, Raptors or Bulls.

Related:

What it takes to win the NBA Championship

After losing their last 2 games against the Boston Celtics and the New York Kincks, it will be very interesting to see how the Detroit Pistons respond this evening, when they journey to Cleveland to take on the team with the top W-L record in the NBA.

While many Pistons fans are lamenting the atrocious state of their squad which was sitting at the top end of the Eastern Conference just 2 seasons ago … this corner of the blogosphere does not share a similar level of doom and gloom concerning the goings-on in the Motor City over the last 12 months.

If the Pistons’ everyday rotation/line-up was to look like this:

STARTERS
1. PG, Stuckey [32 MPG, best multi-dimensional PG with good size]
2. OG, Hamilton [32 MPG, best offensive Wing scorer with good size]
3. SF, Prince [30 MPG, best defensive/rebounding Wing player]
4. PF, Maxiell [26 MPG, best rebounding front-court player]
5. C, Brown [22 MPG, best interior defensive/rebounding player]

KEY SUBS
6. PG-OG, Gordon [32 MPG, best combination Guard with solid perimeter J]
7. SF, Jerebko [18 MPG, best defensive/rebounding back-up Wing]
8. PF, Villanueva [22 MPG, best perimeter-oriented scoring Big]
9. C, Wallace [28 MPG, best interior defensive/rebounding Big]

RESERVES
10. OG-SF, Daye [injury replacement minutes which would be a lot this yr]
11. SF-PF, Summers [injury replacement minutes which would be a lot this yr]

EXTRAS
12. PG, Atkins [DNP-CD]

OUTS [who should be package with another asset in exchange for an inside scoring Big]
13. PG, Bynum [amongst the very best back-up PG's in the NBA]
14. PF-C, Wilcox

what Detroit would find is that:

- the rhythm for their 3 principal Guards [i.e. Hamilton, Stuckey and Gordon] would be much improved
- the quality of their PG play overall would be more consistent [i.e. with Stuckey and Gordon, exclusively, running this team]
- their overall level of “Team Cohesion” would improve significantly
- their interior defense would be improved
- their Guard oriented Team Scoring output would be much improved

Contrary to popular belief, this year’s Pistons team actually has a good deal of solid NBA talent that is simply not being used properly by their head coach.

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PS. Just because Daye [i.e. talented OG-SF scorer] and Summers [i.e. talented PF-SF defender/rebounder] haven’t been given the opportunity to play a whole lot of minutes yet this season, Pistons fans should not make the mistake of thinking that either player has a lower long term ceiling than Jonas Jerebko, who has shown great promise thus far in the limited [but increasing] minutes he has received. Pistons fans were told in the summer that the player they were getting in Jerebko has REAL ability to become a solid contributor to a high end team in the NBA, as his career continues to develop. Few chose to believe what they were told at the time. Time has proven, once again, that they were wrong, and that what was said by yours truly was highly accurate. Well, the exact same thing also applies to Daye and Summers. As the next 2 years continue to unfold, what astute Pistons fans should begin to see more and more is that both of these young men have the capacity to develop into frontline contributors for Detroit, down-the-road a piece … provided that each one is eventually used properly by the team’s head coach who, unfortunately, should be someone other than John Kuester. Until Joe Dumars fixes his problem, in this regard, and identifies a proven high end NBA head coach [e.g. Jeff Van Gundy] who can lead his team properly, the abundant talent on this team is merely going to waste.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s take on the sorry state of the once-proud Detroit Pistons …

Detroit Pistons 104 [21-40]
NEW YORK KNICKS 128 [21-39]

Complete Game Info

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Coming off a tough loss on Tuesday night, at home against the Boston Celtics, Detroit played New York fairly even for the first 32 minutes of last night’s match-up at Madison Square Garden, and trailed by only 5 points at the 4:02 mark of the 3rd quarter, when John Kuester made the decision to replace Rodney Stuckey/PG with Will Bynum:

What others should be able to glean from the Pistons’ performance last night … throughout the contest and, specifically, at crunch time … is that WHEN their coach, John Kuester, chooses to:

1. Use Will Bynum [23 MP] as the primary Back-up to Rodney Stuckey [26 MP], at the PG position, instead of Ben Gordon [OG-PG, 23 MP];

2. Use Rip Hamilton [33 MP] at the SF position, from time to time, in a “going small” 5-man unit, rather than exclusively at the OG position;

3. Use Ben Gordon as the primary Back-up to Rip Hamilton, at the OG position, usually in conjunction with Will Bynum/PG, giving the Pistons one of the “smallest” and least effective guard combinations in the league when it comes to defense and rebounding;

4. Use Jason Maxiell [30 MP] as his Starting Center, rather than Kwame Brown [3 MP in garbage time] … while operating beside Stuckey, Hamilton, Prince [33 MP] and Jerebko [33 MP];

5. Use Jonas Jerebko as his Starting PF, rather than starting Jason Maxiell at that position and then bringing Charlie Villanueva [15 MP] off the bench as his primary Back-up;

6. Use Charlie Villanueva as his Back-up Center, rather than starting Kwame Brown at that position and then bringing Chris Wilcox [DNP-CD] off the bench as his primary Back-up;

7. Not use Austin Daye for more than 10 minutes, as a secondary Back-up at the OG & SF positions, in a game where he was the only member of the Pistons who generated a “positive” plus/minus number [i.e. +6], while shooting 43% from the floor, shooting 100% from the FT Line, with 3 Rebs, a positive Ast:TO and 1 St;

and,

8. Not use DeJaun Summers [6-8, 240] for more than 3 minutes, as a secondary Back-up at the SF & PF positions, in a game where their opponent chose to start [and give critical amounts of PT to] a “going big” 5-Man Unit that looked like this:

Option 1

PG, T-Mac [6-8, 223]
OG, Bill Walker [6-6, 230]
SF, Danilo Gallinari [6-10, 225]
PF, Al Harrington [6-9, 250]
C, David Lee [6-9, 250]

Option 2

PG, T-Mac [6-8, 223]
OG, Eddie House [6-1, 180] 
SF, Bill Walker [6-6, 230]
PF, Al Harrington [6-9, 250]
C, David Lee [6-9, 250];

then, the Pistons are unable to compete successfully on Offense, Defense and in terms of Rebounding.

While others in the on-line hoops community are certainly free to assign blame to whomever they think is most responsible for the current mess in Detroit, as far as these eyes are concerned, the Pistons’ main problem this season is rooted in the poor decision-making of their head coach, John Kuester … i.e. in terms of how he is choosing to use his personnel … which has consistently resulted in awful performances similar to last night’s atrocious display in the 4th quarter.

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PS. Those who have followed this blog for the better part of the last 2 years should be able to readily attest that a simple observation of:

“What Team X needs to do in order to turn around their fortunes is fire their head coach,” 

is not the usual reaction from yours truly. In this case, however, there’s a good deal of solid “NBA level talent” that is simply going to waste in Detroit.

Every year since the 2000-2001 season, each of the two teams which have reached the NBA Finals (i.e. the Champion and the Finalist) have also finished the regular season schedule with a Quality Rating (QR) of 34, or better, and a Quality Index Rank (QIR) of #11 or better (when compared to all playoff teams that year) … i.e. What it takes to win the NBA Championship.

If the NBA Playoffs were to start today, this is what the list of legitimate contenders to win the championship actually looks like:

There are only 9 teams in the hunt with a little more than 1 month’s worth of games left to be played.

4 in the Eastern Conference:

Cleveland Cavaliers [#1]
Orlando Magic [#2]
Charlotte Bobcats [#8], and
Boston Celtics [#9];

and,

5 in the Western Conference:

Los Angeles Lakers [#3]
San Antonio Spurs [#4]
Oklahoma City Thunder [#5]
Utah Jazz [#6], and
Portland Trail Blazers [#7].

When the numbers are crunched …