khandor’s sports blog

There has been a very good reason why the Detroit Pistons have under-achieved for the last few seasons:

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Will Bynum currently out of Pistons’ rotation

Pistons coach Lawrence Frank has chose to go with a three-guard lineup of Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon and Brandon Knight as of late. That has left Will Bynum out of the rotation.

Other than the final three minutes in the loss at Boston on Dec. 30, Bynum has not played in the Pistons last three games.

“It’s hard,” Frank said. “Will’s a very, very good player. He’s obviously a guy we see as a game changer, especially on the offensive end. Someone who … is one of our better pick-and-roll players. But it’s hard to play three point guards, especially cause outside of Rodney our guards are small.

“Will’s definitely going to have his day in the sun. He’s going to help us win games, but right now this is where we’re at.

“Especially with a new coach and a new system the one thing I’ve said to the group and I also say to myself is, ‘Flexibility.’ We don’t have all the answers right now. Will we feel is part of the solution. We’ll just see how it all fits.”

Bynum played nearly 13 minutes in the season opener, finishing with six points on 1 for 5 shooting, three assists, three rebounds and two turnovers. Bynum did not play in the home opener against Cleveland, played the final 3:25 at Boston on Dec. 30 and did not play in the Pistons win over Indiana on New Year’s Eve.

Even though Bynum hasn’t been playing, Frank still feels he can be a part of the team’s success.

“Even when you’re not playing you can contribute and part of that is being a good teammate, being involved, especially as a point guard you should really be engaged in the game,” Frank said. “Everyone on this level can play. A lot of it is about opportunity and combinations on the floor. What may be your lineup today could be different a week from now, could be different a month from now. Really the guys play determines how much they do or do not play.

“(With) Will, it’s not a lack of confidence, a lack of faith, a lack of belief or lack of ability. It’s just we have small guards and we’re not a good rebounding team. Defensive rebounding takes precedent and we’ll go from there. But Will will have his day.”

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and, the fact is … despite what certain so-called “stats gurus” might like to perpetuate throughout the blogosphere:

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Detroit Pistons Are Who We Thought They Were

Why the Pistons are Misbehaving

John Kuester was not the problem: Part 1

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… it’s had absolutely nothing to do with the overall “poor quality” of the players on their roster.

PS. Team Cohesion is a much bigger part of success and failure in the NBA than most observers understand, and by keeping Will Bynum completely out of the Pistons’ rotation … something which yours truly first recommended to Pistons fans, back in the summer of 2009, in a now-defunct thread concerning the proper use of Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon and Will Bynum, at a fan-based site named “Detroit Bad Boys” … Lawrence Frank is demonstrating that he actually knows what he’s doing, as a competent NBA-level head coach, unlike John Kuester.

PPS. Btw … He who laughs last, laughs best.

Chicago got off to a good start last night with the new addition to their primary rotation.

Those who believe that Rip Hamilton was, in some way, THE main source of the problems with the Detroit Pistons over the course of the last 2 seasons are going to find out that their perception was far from accurate.

Looking at the way the Detroit Pistons have performed during their last 7 games:

it should now be relatively easy for others to see that the main reason this team has wallowed in the bottom third of the Eastern Conference Standings, to this point this season, has been the relatively poor job done by John Kuester and the Lack of Team Cohesion his personnel decisions have fostered.

The stark reality for the Pistons this year is that …

There has always been more than enough legitimate NBA talent on-hand for Detroit to compete effectively for a lower tier playoff position in the Eastern Conference … as long as their head coach doesn’t muck it up by:

I. Refusing to settle on one of many different possible solid 8-9 player rotations;

and,

II. Creating a series of needless internal conflicts with the best players on the team.

… in contrast to what you may have been told by certain ‘stats gurus’ who think that the Pistons’ main problem has been rooted elsewhere. 

Unfortunately, as long as John Kuester is head coach for the Pistons …

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Richard Hamilton on the sideline as Pistons fall to Grizzlies

He stood away from the team during timeouts, talking with longtime teammate Ben Wallace.

Richard Hamilton managed to crack a few smiles, despite registering his first healthy “did not play-coaches decision” in his career as a Piston.

His name being the subject of serious trade rumors for a week, he sat and watched as his teammates dropped their second straight game, losing 107-99 to the Memphis Grizzlies at the Palace on Tuesday night.

“They didn’t tell me anything, I was definitely surprised,” Hamilton said after the game. “Do I think it was a level of disrespect or unfair or anything? I’ll leave that to you all.”

Teammate Tayshaun Prince chimed in and said, “buffoonery. Do you all know what that means?”

Hamilton said the game is usually his sanctuary, a place he can tune out all the chaos surrounding him, but Tuesday was a different story. He was asked if he wanted to be traded.

“I can’t control that. Like if I wanted to play, I couldn’t control it,” Hamilton said. “Only thing I can do is prepare myself to play and give the fans what they want. It just wasn’t that way tonight.”

When asked if he was eager for a change, Hamilton said: “I really can’t answer that right now.

“It’s tough, especially when you’re not playing. You can kind of isolate everything that’s going on. When you’re not playing, (it’s) ‘what did I do? So I try to stay motivated. I can’t control my minutes, my playing time.”

The Pistons’ franchise leader in playoff scoring said he wouldn’t approach coach John Kuester about it or Pistons president Joe Dumars, saying “I don’t talk to nobody. Maybe you all need to talk to them (management).”

As for the future, that’s a question no one is willing to address.

“We shortened the rotation and changed the lineup,” Kuester said. “That was it.”

Kuester said everybody’s gotten a chance to turn things around, and that Hamilton’s sitting was nothing to read into.

“When you put Rodney at the two, and depending on matchup situations, somebody has to be out,” Kuester said. “Right now we’re searching to find a group that can get the job done.”

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… it now seems as though whatever NBA-level talent this club has on its current roster is simply going to waste away.

Results For Pistons Last 10 Road Games

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Published Wagering Line

Opening: TORONTO RAPTORS -4.5/-110

Current: TORONTO RAPTORS -5.5/-105 [as of 11:00 AM today]

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KSS Prognostication

No call.

Those who would try to tell you that they have a solid grasp of what specific line-up the Pistons will trot out this evening vs the Raptors are being disingenuous.

If Detroit chooses to use a ‘non-buffoonery’ type rotation … that is similar to what they did the last time they visited Toronto … then, the Pistons could well blow the Raptors out, once again.

If, however, Detroit chooses to use a ‘buffoonery’ type rotation … that is similar to what they did for their last game, vs Memphis … then, the chances are equally good that the Raptors will win tonight’s game by a double-digit margin.

Best to stay as far away from this game as possible.

As was mentioned here yesterday …

If John Kuester is not going to settle on a specific rotation for the Pistons this year, then, Detroit will most likely drop to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.

However, it would be a serious mistake in Basketball Judgment for anyone to think that the chief reason for this type of precipitous decline in the fortunes of this franchise is due to the overall poor quality of the players on their present roster.

Detroit Pistons [10-19] 115
TORONTO RAPTORS [10-19] 93
Complete Game Info

Despite the fact that the Raptors went into last night’s game with a depleted line-up …

Jerryd Bayless [Out - illness]
Sonny Weems [Out - injured]
Peja Stojakovic [Out - injured]
Reggie Evans [Out - injured]

and were forced to use already-injured starters Jose Calderon [PG] and Andrea Bargnani [C] for copious amounts of minutes – even though they were both playing poorly - and were forced to play the final 26:43 without the services of their starting PF, Amir Johnson [who sufferred a re-occurrence of his on-going trouble with back spasms] …

The specific rotation which the Pistons used in this game is but one example of what can happen when a team’s players have a solid understanding of their respective individual roles, and their head coach uses them in combinations that actually make a good deal of sense from an Individual Match-up perspective.

If you take a look at the “Substitution Chart” from last night’s game:

and the Play-By-Play for the 2nd half of the 2nd quarter:

you should be able to see where exactly the Pistons dismantled the Raptors during two specific segments of the 2nd quarter AND used a different rotation than they have employed at any other point so far this season that looks like this:

which allowed their team to take advantage of certain mis-match situations on offense, while limiting their exposure to disadvantageous mis-match situations at the defensive end of the floor.

Kudos to John Kuester.

Unfortunately, this is what the Pistons’ topsy-turvy rotation has looked like for the past 4 games:

As long as John Kuester refuses to develop a consistent 8 or 9 player rotation for this team, there is no longer any reason to believe that Detroit might actually have what it takes to compete effectively for a lower tier playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

Considering:

1. The Pistons’ W-L Record, since Game 22 …

Game # – Results [W-L Rec, Game 22-41; W-L Rec, 2010-2011]

Game 22 – L, @ HOUSTON, 83-97 [0-1; 7-15]
Game 23 – L, @ NEW ORLEANS, 74-93 [0-2; 7-16]
Game 24 – L, @ MINNESOTA, 99-109 [0-3; 7-17]
Game 25 – L, vs Toronto, 116-120 [0-4; 7-18]
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Game 26 – W, vs Atlanta, 103-80 [1-4; 8-18]
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Game 27 – L, vs LA Clippers, 88-109 [1-5; 8-19]
Game 28 – W, vs New Orleans, 111-108 OT [2-5; 9-19];

2. The probable outcomes for their games between today and the mid-point of the regular season schedule:

Game 29 – L-?, @ TORONTO [2-6; 9-20]
Game 30: L-?, vs Chicago [2-7; 9-21]
Game 31: L-?, @ CHARLOTTE [2-8; 9-22]
Game 32: L-? @ BOSTON [2-9; 9-23]
Game 33: L-?, @ PHOENIX [2-10; 9-24]
Game 34: L-?, @ UTAH [2-11; 9-25]
Game 35: L-?, @ LA LAKERS [2-12; 9-26]
Game 36: W-?, vs Philadelphia [3-12; 10-26]
Game 37: L-?, @ Chicago [3-13; 10-27]
Game 38: L-?, vs Memphis [3-14; 10-28]
Game 39: L-?, @ TORONTO [3-15; 10-29]
Game 40: W-?, vs Sacramento [4-15; 11-29]
Game 41: L-?, @ BOSTON [4-16; 11-30];

3. The recent turmoil surrounding Rip Hamilton;

and,

4. The following almost unbelievable quote from Coach Kuester:

“He was cramping up and didn’t want to come out. I was so proud of the way he competed the whole time.” 

regarding his “positive” impression of the so-called “work” put in by Charlie Villanueva … a ridiculously poor defender, intermittent rebounder and, in general, irresponsible chucker … in Detroit’s win over New Orleans;

there is now a strong possibility that the Pistons will eventually finish in one of the bottom two positions in the East this year … and, in the process, secure the rights to one of the high selections in the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery.

Once this happens, however, and Karen Davidson is able to sell the team, then, the Pistons should at least be in a decent position to gradually work their way back up the standings … with a group of fairly talented youngsters on-board already, including Rodney Stuckey, Jonas Jerebko, Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Greg Monroe … the addition of a top tier selection in the upcoming draft, and the hiring of a new head coach who actually knows what he’s doing, as an elite level practicioner.

Well, well, well.

The Pistons’ re-vamped 9-man rotation looked like this, in tonight’s demolition of the Hawks:

Atlanta Hawks 80
DETROIT PISTONS 103
Complete Game Info

It will be very interesting to see if Coach Kuester has the good “basketball sense” to stick with this ‘new & improved’ philosophy … or, at least, a close facsimile of it … for the balance of the season.

If he does:

1. He will finally be making a sound personnel decision and conducting his affairs like a solid NBA head coach;

and,

2. Any knowledgeable basketball observer should not be surprised, at all, to see the Pistons remain in contention for a lower tier playoff position the balance of this campaign;

in spite of what s/he may have been told before by so-called ‘stats gurus‘.

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Related:

Detroit Pistons host the Atlanta Hawks: Where’s Your JOD Now? 

[ROTFLOLWKAS]

In the aftermath of the Pistons’ latest debacle …

Toronto Raptors 120
DETROIT PISTONS 116
Complete Game Info

It is very interesting to see and read today what others NOW believe is the main source of the problems for the 2010-2011 edition of their team.

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Coach John Kuester’s Pistons an absolute mess

Pistons coach John Kuester said he wanted to take a long look at the game film of the Pistons’ stunning 120-116 loss to the Raptors to figure out how they blew a 25-point second-half lead after scoring a season-high 72 points in the first half.

Kuester is wasting his time.

The problems Saturday cannot be found on game film. They are between the ears and are etched inside of a coach who cannot pull the right gears.

They are the same problems that occurred when the Pistons blew a seven-point lead to the Nets during the final seconds in the season opener. They are the same problems that caused the Pistons to blow a 21-point lead to the Bulls and saw them trail the Warriors by as many as 32 points.

The Pistons began the season with a system in which players did not know their roles. And six weeks into the season, that has not changed.

“Everybody’s role is different this year,” guard Richard Hamilton said. “We are all playing different roles and our minutes are reduced, so the way you are accustomed to playing, you are no longer playing that way any more. We don’t know who is going to play in the fourth quarter, what we are going to run in the fourth quarter.

“It is all up in the air. We are trying to learn to figure out what we are supposed to do.”

Kuester took the blame for the Pistons’ latest loss. He also should take blame for the Pistons’ dismal season because he has not been able to lend stability to the team. A coach’s job is to put players in the best position to win. That is not happening, because players don’t even know what position they are supposed to be in.

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In general …

Time - i.e. the only arbitrator that truly matters – eventually has a funny way of proving, exactly, who it was that actually had the most accurate understanding of a specific situation, at a given point in time …

Pistons main problem this year is their head coach [Mar 3 2010]

Specific reasons why the Pistons lost another winnable game [Mar 4 2010]

and, who it was …

that did not.

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“He who laughs last, laughs best.“ - American Idiom

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.