Glenn
11-12-2007, 12:39 PM
Ad space is now available in Langlois' mailbag, apparently.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Before we delve into another overflowing Mailbag, Pistons trainer Mike Abdenour asked that we give him some help getting out the news on Rip Hamilton’s protective face mask. Anyone interested in having one made for yourself or others, please contact Jeremy Murray, Michigan Hand & Sports Rehab Center, 11012 East 13 Mile Road, Suite 112, Warren MI 48093 or call (586) 573-8890.
On with the mail …
Marvin (Richmond, Va.): Flip Saunders said recently that Amir would have to take minutes from Maxiell in order to play. That goes contrary to what was being said during the summer. Is there going to be a problem getting Amir on the floor?
Langlois: The best answer I can give to that, Marvin, is to refer to you to what Joe Dumars told me last week.
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Aaron (New York): I love the start to the season, but I feel Nazr is a weak link much like Delfino was. What exactly does he bring to the table that we don’t already have in Detroit?
Langlois: Legitimate center size and a guy who sticks the 15-foot foul-line jumper better than any other reserve big man. No one’s contending that Nazr is an All-Star candidate, but he’s judged too harshly. He’s a competent big man at both ends who’d give the Pistons decent numbers if he was given more minutes. He was a more productive player in the days before the NBA started widely adopting the philosophy of going athletic over size up front. There are going to be games this year the Pistons are glad they have him. Remember, Nazr signed a mid-level exception contract – a nice paycheck, but not a salary that’s weighing down the team.
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Kayhan (West Bloomfield): I was barely able to watch the preseason because I barely had time, so I didn’t catch a glimpse of Rodney Stuckey. Any insight into what kind of player he can become?
Langlois: A guard with speed and strength, good with the ball, takes it to the rim with purpose, draws fouls, knocks down foul shots and passes willingly. In the preseason game in which he suffered the broken hand that has him sidelined, he confirmed every glowing account that came his way over the course of the summer. There’s no question that if the draft were redone today, Stuckey would be gone long before the Pistons’ pick at 15. I can’t believe Memphis, given a do-over at No. 4, wouldn’t take Stuckey over Mike Conley, stuck behind Kyle Lowry and Damon Stoudamire at point guard for the Grizzlies.
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Nathan (Farmington Hills): I’m very impressed with this team. I really love when the bench comes in and it’s like a whole different team – the tempo picks up. I’d like to know what you think of Boston’s hot start.
Langlois: The second unit has only scratched the surface of its tempo-altering potential. Let’s see what it looks like when Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson get it going and are out there with Jason Maxiell and Arron Afflalo or Flip Murray. I’m expecting Flip Saunders to pick his spots with that unit and unleash some half-court trapping that was very successful in spots last year with a less athletic unit.
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Chenzo (Auburn Hills): Can you tell me who was involved in the trade that would have sent Allen Iverson to the Pistons? Remember, the trade would have happened if Matt Geiger would have passed his physical. I can’t remember who Detroit was giving up.
Langlois: The trade didn’t go down because Geiger wouldn’t agree to waive a trade kicker in his contract, Chenzo. I don’t remember complete details on it, but it was a four-team trade and the Pistons were going to ship away Jerry Stackhouse and Jerome Williams. It’s impossible to say what might have happened had Iverson come to Detroit. It would have affected everything else Joe Dumars did in assembling the other pieces of what became the 2004 NBA champions. Stackhouse was eventually traded for Rip Hamilton, so Hamilton wouldn’t be here. Would the Pistons have pursued Chauncey Billups, a point guard with a scorer’s mentality – especially at the time they signed him – to pair with Iverson? Given the way it’s turned out, I think Dumars is OK with the fact that this trade unraveled.
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Fran (Southfield): With the departure of the old faces and the influx of new faces, do the Pistons still enjoy the camaraderie we’ve heard so much about?
Langlois: By all outward appearances, yes, Fran. Chauncey Billups told me last week that he was especially looking forward to the current five-game Western Conference road swing because it would be the first time to those arenas and cities for the rookies, at least as NBA players. There’s nobody on the team who doesn’t appear to be fully a part of the group.
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Steve (Tecumseh, Ontario): After watching Tayshaun Prince dominate the first two blowouts and then seeing the Pistons go down to the wire with Atlanta when Rip Hamilton came back, the thought occurred to me that the Pistons should bring Hamilton off the bench like Manu Ginobili does in San Antonio?
Langlois: It’s been suggested here before, Steve, and I’ve dismissed it because the Pistons have often relied on Hamilton for early scoring. I’m not as sure it’s a lousy idea anymore – not because of any problems with Hamilton and Prince getting in each other’s way, but because with Antonio McDyess in the lineup the Pistons have more scoring punch across the board – but the bottom line is I don’t think the Pistons would entertain the notion unless something convinced them otherwise. I also think Hamilton’s going to play 35 to 38 minutes a night, so does it really matter that much if the 10 to 13 minutes he sits come to start halves or in the middle of them? Hamilton and Prince are two of the Pistons top perimeter players and their time on the floor is going to overlap to a large extent no matter what.
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Preston (Muskegon): What draft choices do the Pistons have in the 2008 draft and is there any chance Joe Dumars would be interested in someone like Derrick Rose for Memphis? That kid definitely looks like something special.
Langlois: The Pistons probably aren’t going to spend too much time scouting Rose, Preston – there’s no way they’ll be in position to draft him. The Pistons have their own picks in the first and second rounds next June and they also will get Minnesota’s second-rounder, which should fall very high in the round. But Rose more than likely will be a top-five pick and could go No. 1. As we sit here in November, the ’09 draft looks like one where the top pick will depend on who wins the lottery. Among the names to remember are Rose, Indiana’s Eric Gordon, Kansas State’s Michael Beasley and Southern Cal’s O.J. Mayo – all of them freshmen.
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Kyle (Detroit): I think Maxiell has been great for the Pistons and read on ESPN that a few have him picked as the most improved player. Do you think he can get it?
Langlois: He fits the mold, Kyle – a young player with the first real opportunity for a stable role in his career. But it’s way too early to narrow the field on a category like that one.
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Lloyd: From what I know, Ben Wallace became extremely frustrated sitting on the bench at the end of important games because of his free-throw struggles. If they had made the “Hack-a-Shaq” illegal before the 2005-06 season, do you think Ben would still be here? We could have gone over the salary cap to retain him and still kept Chauncey by invoking his Bird rights, correct?
Langlois: The Hack-a-Shaq thing played no role in the Pistons’ negotiations with Wallace as a free agent. It simply came down to Chicago pricing the Pistons out of the market. The Bulls gave Wallace $60 million over four years and it’s been widely reported that the Pistons were offering about $12 million less than that – a $3 million annual average. And because the Bulls front-loaded Wallace’s contract, the real difference is even wider. Signing Ben to that contract would have made it almost impossible for the Pistons to stay under the luxury-tax threshold – forget the salary cap – this summer when both Billups and Amir Johnson were free agents. They’re less than $1 million from the threshold now even without Wallace. Given Wallace’s production since he left and the way the Pistons have absorbed the loss, you’d be hard-pressed to convince anyone the Pistons erred in their assessment of Big Ben’s value.
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Thomas (Berlin): I’m wondering what happened to Chris Webber? Did he retire? I couldn’t find any information.
Langlois: You couldn’t find any information on Webber? Then the Berlin Wall must still exist in cyberspace, Thomas – I’ve answered so many questions about Webber’s whereabouts, we’ve made it a permanent feature of Mailbag FAQ.
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Jerry (Walled Lake): In the first three games, it appears the starters are on the same pace for minutes as last year. I thought Joe Dumars wanted the starters to average around 30 minutes. Do you know if the Pistons plan to monitor minutes even at the expense of losing a few games?
Langlois: The numbers were skewed in the first few games because of Rip Hamilton’s absence and injuries to Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson, Jerry. I don’t know about 30 – I think Hamilton and Chauncey Billups are going to be closer to 35 and Tayshaun Prince probably close to that – but the Pistons definitely plan to get to the playoffs with a fresher group of starters and a more tested group of reserves this year.
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Adam (Chicago): As a die-hard Pistons fan in Chicago, I’ve had the opportunity to get outside opinions on my basketball team. Co-workers and friends have mentioned how the Pistons tend to complain a lot to the referees. Has this problem been addressed by the team, coaches and executives?
Langlois: Again and again, Adam. There are many in the league – not just the Pistons – who feel there’s still too much respect given to superstars by officials. Because the Pistons don’t have anyone regarded in quite that class – Kobe, LeBron, Wade, et al – yet have a team regarded among the elite, there exists the potential for conflict. Would referees say the Pistons give them more grief than the average team? Hard to say – referees don’t say much about that stuff, at least not on the record. But the Pistons are a passionate team that plays a lot of meaningful games, so logic says they’re probably going to be involved in more disputed calls than most. Let’s remember this: We’re talking about a matter of degrees. It’s not like there’s the Pistons and then there’s everybody else when it comes to bickering with officials.
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Ryan (Dallas): I don’t doubt we’ll see the Pistons in the Finals this year. My money is on the Mavericks for their opponent. If the Pistons were to face one of the West’s giants in the Finals, how do you think they’d fare?
Langlois: Sheesh, Ryan, why don’t you give me an easy one – like explaining, oh, what it is that makes a hyena laugh? The great imponderable here is what are all of those teams going to look like by the time the regular season ends and – beyond that, even – what the two finalists will look like after having traipsed through three playoff rounds. This Pistons team – because of the development of young players like Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson – has a chance to be a significantly different and better team by March and April. I’m not sure any of the likely Western finalists have the same opportunity for growth – then again, they’re already pretty formidable. If the Pistons get to the NBA Finals, I’m confident that they’ll be confident in their ability to win four of seven games no matter who shows up to play them.
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Steve (Madison Heights): Today is a sad day. I’ve just come to the conclusion that it’s time to trade Rip. He had no composure against Chicago and tried to trip Tyrus Thomas. When he’s mad, he plays worse. I say trade Rip and Nazr for somebody who can rebound.
Langlois: Why don’t we just wait a few more weeks on that one, Steve.
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Terrell: I think it’s time to start building the offense around Tayshaun Prince early in games instead of Rip Hamilton. Tayshaun is the type of player who likes to get in rhythm early. It seems like he struggles when he doesn’t get the ball early.
Langlois: The Pistons have a balancing act to perform on offense to a greater extent that most teams, Terrell, because they put five players of relatively equal scoring ability on the floor to start games – I don’t think there’s another team in the league quite like that. I wrote about it last week. The bottom line is that the Pistons are concentrating on exploiting mismatches to a greater extent this season. And everybody seems to agree that the Pistons are best when Chauncey Billups is aggressive – because he has the ball in his hands more often than anyone else, if Billups is a scoring threat defenses must react to that and leave themselves vulnerable elsewhere.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Before we delve into another overflowing Mailbag, Pistons trainer Mike Abdenour asked that we give him some help getting out the news on Rip Hamilton’s protective face mask. Anyone interested in having one made for yourself or others, please contact Jeremy Murray, Michigan Hand & Sports Rehab Center, 11012 East 13 Mile Road, Suite 112, Warren MI 48093 or call (586) 573-8890.
On with the mail …
Marvin (Richmond, Va.): Flip Saunders said recently that Amir would have to take minutes from Maxiell in order to play. That goes contrary to what was being said during the summer. Is there going to be a problem getting Amir on the floor?
Langlois: The best answer I can give to that, Marvin, is to refer to you to what Joe Dumars told me last week.
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Aaron (New York): I love the start to the season, but I feel Nazr is a weak link much like Delfino was. What exactly does he bring to the table that we don’t already have in Detroit?
Langlois: Legitimate center size and a guy who sticks the 15-foot foul-line jumper better than any other reserve big man. No one’s contending that Nazr is an All-Star candidate, but he’s judged too harshly. He’s a competent big man at both ends who’d give the Pistons decent numbers if he was given more minutes. He was a more productive player in the days before the NBA started widely adopting the philosophy of going athletic over size up front. There are going to be games this year the Pistons are glad they have him. Remember, Nazr signed a mid-level exception contract – a nice paycheck, but not a salary that’s weighing down the team.
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Kayhan (West Bloomfield): I was barely able to watch the preseason because I barely had time, so I didn’t catch a glimpse of Rodney Stuckey. Any insight into what kind of player he can become?
Langlois: A guard with speed and strength, good with the ball, takes it to the rim with purpose, draws fouls, knocks down foul shots and passes willingly. In the preseason game in which he suffered the broken hand that has him sidelined, he confirmed every glowing account that came his way over the course of the summer. There’s no question that if the draft were redone today, Stuckey would be gone long before the Pistons’ pick at 15. I can’t believe Memphis, given a do-over at No. 4, wouldn’t take Stuckey over Mike Conley, stuck behind Kyle Lowry and Damon Stoudamire at point guard for the Grizzlies.
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Nathan (Farmington Hills): I’m very impressed with this team. I really love when the bench comes in and it’s like a whole different team – the tempo picks up. I’d like to know what you think of Boston’s hot start.
Langlois: The second unit has only scratched the surface of its tempo-altering potential. Let’s see what it looks like when Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson get it going and are out there with Jason Maxiell and Arron Afflalo or Flip Murray. I’m expecting Flip Saunders to pick his spots with that unit and unleash some half-court trapping that was very successful in spots last year with a less athletic unit.
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Chenzo (Auburn Hills): Can you tell me who was involved in the trade that would have sent Allen Iverson to the Pistons? Remember, the trade would have happened if Matt Geiger would have passed his physical. I can’t remember who Detroit was giving up.
Langlois: The trade didn’t go down because Geiger wouldn’t agree to waive a trade kicker in his contract, Chenzo. I don’t remember complete details on it, but it was a four-team trade and the Pistons were going to ship away Jerry Stackhouse and Jerome Williams. It’s impossible to say what might have happened had Iverson come to Detroit. It would have affected everything else Joe Dumars did in assembling the other pieces of what became the 2004 NBA champions. Stackhouse was eventually traded for Rip Hamilton, so Hamilton wouldn’t be here. Would the Pistons have pursued Chauncey Billups, a point guard with a scorer’s mentality – especially at the time they signed him – to pair with Iverson? Given the way it’s turned out, I think Dumars is OK with the fact that this trade unraveled.
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Fran (Southfield): With the departure of the old faces and the influx of new faces, do the Pistons still enjoy the camaraderie we’ve heard so much about?
Langlois: By all outward appearances, yes, Fran. Chauncey Billups told me last week that he was especially looking forward to the current five-game Western Conference road swing because it would be the first time to those arenas and cities for the rookies, at least as NBA players. There’s nobody on the team who doesn’t appear to be fully a part of the group.
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Steve (Tecumseh, Ontario): After watching Tayshaun Prince dominate the first two blowouts and then seeing the Pistons go down to the wire with Atlanta when Rip Hamilton came back, the thought occurred to me that the Pistons should bring Hamilton off the bench like Manu Ginobili does in San Antonio?
Langlois: It’s been suggested here before, Steve, and I’ve dismissed it because the Pistons have often relied on Hamilton for early scoring. I’m not as sure it’s a lousy idea anymore – not because of any problems with Hamilton and Prince getting in each other’s way, but because with Antonio McDyess in the lineup the Pistons have more scoring punch across the board – but the bottom line is I don’t think the Pistons would entertain the notion unless something convinced them otherwise. I also think Hamilton’s going to play 35 to 38 minutes a night, so does it really matter that much if the 10 to 13 minutes he sits come to start halves or in the middle of them? Hamilton and Prince are two of the Pistons top perimeter players and their time on the floor is going to overlap to a large extent no matter what.
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Preston (Muskegon): What draft choices do the Pistons have in the 2008 draft and is there any chance Joe Dumars would be interested in someone like Derrick Rose for Memphis? That kid definitely looks like something special.
Langlois: The Pistons probably aren’t going to spend too much time scouting Rose, Preston – there’s no way they’ll be in position to draft him. The Pistons have their own picks in the first and second rounds next June and they also will get Minnesota’s second-rounder, which should fall very high in the round. But Rose more than likely will be a top-five pick and could go No. 1. As we sit here in November, the ’09 draft looks like one where the top pick will depend on who wins the lottery. Among the names to remember are Rose, Indiana’s Eric Gordon, Kansas State’s Michael Beasley and Southern Cal’s O.J. Mayo – all of them freshmen.
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Kyle (Detroit): I think Maxiell has been great for the Pistons and read on ESPN that a few have him picked as the most improved player. Do you think he can get it?
Langlois: He fits the mold, Kyle – a young player with the first real opportunity for a stable role in his career. But it’s way too early to narrow the field on a category like that one.
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Lloyd: From what I know, Ben Wallace became extremely frustrated sitting on the bench at the end of important games because of his free-throw struggles. If they had made the “Hack-a-Shaq” illegal before the 2005-06 season, do you think Ben would still be here? We could have gone over the salary cap to retain him and still kept Chauncey by invoking his Bird rights, correct?
Langlois: The Hack-a-Shaq thing played no role in the Pistons’ negotiations with Wallace as a free agent. It simply came down to Chicago pricing the Pistons out of the market. The Bulls gave Wallace $60 million over four years and it’s been widely reported that the Pistons were offering about $12 million less than that – a $3 million annual average. And because the Bulls front-loaded Wallace’s contract, the real difference is even wider. Signing Ben to that contract would have made it almost impossible for the Pistons to stay under the luxury-tax threshold – forget the salary cap – this summer when both Billups and Amir Johnson were free agents. They’re less than $1 million from the threshold now even without Wallace. Given Wallace’s production since he left and the way the Pistons have absorbed the loss, you’d be hard-pressed to convince anyone the Pistons erred in their assessment of Big Ben’s value.
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Thomas (Berlin): I’m wondering what happened to Chris Webber? Did he retire? I couldn’t find any information.
Langlois: You couldn’t find any information on Webber? Then the Berlin Wall must still exist in cyberspace, Thomas – I’ve answered so many questions about Webber’s whereabouts, we’ve made it a permanent feature of Mailbag FAQ.
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Jerry (Walled Lake): In the first three games, it appears the starters are on the same pace for minutes as last year. I thought Joe Dumars wanted the starters to average around 30 minutes. Do you know if the Pistons plan to monitor minutes even at the expense of losing a few games?
Langlois: The numbers were skewed in the first few games because of Rip Hamilton’s absence and injuries to Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson, Jerry. I don’t know about 30 – I think Hamilton and Chauncey Billups are going to be closer to 35 and Tayshaun Prince probably close to that – but the Pistons definitely plan to get to the playoffs with a fresher group of starters and a more tested group of reserves this year.
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Adam (Chicago): As a die-hard Pistons fan in Chicago, I’ve had the opportunity to get outside opinions on my basketball team. Co-workers and friends have mentioned how the Pistons tend to complain a lot to the referees. Has this problem been addressed by the team, coaches and executives?
Langlois: Again and again, Adam. There are many in the league – not just the Pistons – who feel there’s still too much respect given to superstars by officials. Because the Pistons don’t have anyone regarded in quite that class – Kobe, LeBron, Wade, et al – yet have a team regarded among the elite, there exists the potential for conflict. Would referees say the Pistons give them more grief than the average team? Hard to say – referees don’t say much about that stuff, at least not on the record. But the Pistons are a passionate team that plays a lot of meaningful games, so logic says they’re probably going to be involved in more disputed calls than most. Let’s remember this: We’re talking about a matter of degrees. It’s not like there’s the Pistons and then there’s everybody else when it comes to bickering with officials.
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Ryan (Dallas): I don’t doubt we’ll see the Pistons in the Finals this year. My money is on the Mavericks for their opponent. If the Pistons were to face one of the West’s giants in the Finals, how do you think they’d fare?
Langlois: Sheesh, Ryan, why don’t you give me an easy one – like explaining, oh, what it is that makes a hyena laugh? The great imponderable here is what are all of those teams going to look like by the time the regular season ends and – beyond that, even – what the two finalists will look like after having traipsed through three playoff rounds. This Pistons team – because of the development of young players like Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson – has a chance to be a significantly different and better team by March and April. I’m not sure any of the likely Western finalists have the same opportunity for growth – then again, they’re already pretty formidable. If the Pistons get to the NBA Finals, I’m confident that they’ll be confident in their ability to win four of seven games no matter who shows up to play them.
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Steve (Madison Heights): Today is a sad day. I’ve just come to the conclusion that it’s time to trade Rip. He had no composure against Chicago and tried to trip Tyrus Thomas. When he’s mad, he plays worse. I say trade Rip and Nazr for somebody who can rebound.
Langlois: Why don’t we just wait a few more weeks on that one, Steve.
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Terrell: I think it’s time to start building the offense around Tayshaun Prince early in games instead of Rip Hamilton. Tayshaun is the type of player who likes to get in rhythm early. It seems like he struggles when he doesn’t get the ball early.
Langlois: The Pistons have a balancing act to perform on offense to a greater extent that most teams, Terrell, because they put five players of relatively equal scoring ability on the floor to start games – I don’t think there’s another team in the league quite like that. I wrote about it last week. The bottom line is that the Pistons are concentrating on exploiting mismatches to a greater extent this season. And everybody seems to agree that the Pistons are best when Chauncey Billups is aggressive – because he has the ball in his hands more often than anyone else, if Billups is a scoring threat defenses must react to that and leave themselves vulnerable elsewhere.