Glenn
12-14-2007, 08:54 AM
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Thursday, December 13, 2007
Renee (Troy): What did Joe Dumars say to Rasheed after last season? I’ll bet it was something along the lines of play like you’re capable of playing and be respectful of the game or we’ll trade you.
Langlois: They talked, but Dumars really didn’t do any admonishing. A few weeks after the playoffs ended, Joe got a call one day and all he heard on the other end was, “I’m sorry I let you down.” It was Rasheed. Dumars knew there wasn’t any need for a lecture. Rasheed showed up to training camp 20-some pounds lighter and picked up two technical fouls through the first 20 games – both cheapies.
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Gil (Charlotte, N.C.): I saw a question in Mailbag where a reader worried that Amir Johnson would get upset about only getting garbage minutes and possibly request a trade. It seems to me the success Jason Maxiell is having would be a strong message to the younger guys that if you work hard, you will create your opportunity.
Langlois: You’re right, Gil. And it took Maxiell two years of apprenticeship after four years of high-level Division I basketball at Cincinnati. Amir Johnson would be a junior at Louisville had he gone to college. There is not the whiff of evidence that Amir is getting frustrated. And he came into the league with Maxiell and has gone through the steps with him. He knows Maxiell is deserving of his shot.
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Kevin (Greencastle, Ind.): So far, we’ve added Dave Bing, Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, Chuck Daly, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Bob Lanier and Bill Davidson to The Palace floor. Do you know if there will be any more additions?
Langlois: Nothing in the works right now, Kevin, but there’s a pretty good chance some of the guys still wearing Pistons uniforms will join the club when their playing days are finished.
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Byron (Detroit): Jarvis Hayes has struggled a little bit lately. He needs to be sharp coming off the bench. What do you think about Hayes? And what about Afflalo? He’s a very good defender but he has also struggled offensively lately.
Langlois: Hayes and pretty much everybody else struggled in the loss to Chicago, but, as Hayes noted, it was their fifth game in seven nights. If ever you could have predicted a clunker, that was the night. The Pistons are very happy with Hayes. Same with Afflalo. His offense is going to be just fine, but he knows when they throw him out there now that they’re asking him to make an impact at the defensive end and energize the team in much the same way Lindsey Hunter has done over the years. I’ve seen nice progress out of Afflalo offensively since the preseason. He’s learned that you have to pick your spots to attack the basket in the NBA and I think he’s going to develop a reliable perimeter jump shot.
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Martha: What’s up with Amir Johnson? Why doesn’t he get more playing time with some of the starters instead of only playing in garbage time? I hope we aren’t creating a situation that will cause Amir to lose confidence in himself.
Langlois: This one has now officially replaced “Are the Pistons going to sign Chris Webber?” as my most frequent Mailbag submission. The short answer: There’s nothing to worry about here, people. Amir wants to play but he fully understands that he’s not better equipped right now to help the Pistons won than the big guys ahead of him. The sprained ankle in training camp hurt him on two levels – it robbed him of the chance to get extended minutes against real NBA players and it took away his opportunity to win over the confidence of his coaches and teammates. The only way back for Amir now is through misfortune – injuries to the players ahead of him – or to prove it in practice time, and with the Pistons in the midst of a 17-game December schedule, practices are infrequent and not rich in situations that will allow him to prove much. Good thing Amir is more patient than Pistons fans. He’s OK. He’s 20 and he knows he’s 20. He was the 56th pick in the draft. He’s a very promising prospect with some rough edges to his game that a team with designs on an NBA title can’t afford to let him hone at the expense of wins.
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Barb (Bridgeport): I attended the Bulls game and there were some guys wearing Pistons hats who’d marked out “Pistons” and wrote “Bulls.” My husband asked why and they said because Chicago had good white players and the Pistons should find some. Do the Pistons plan on adding any white players? (ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?)
Langlois: The roster is ultimately shaped by Joe Dumars, and if the intimation here is that Dumars deliberately has shaped a roster that excludes white players, well … at least now I’ll have a different explanation the next time someone suggests he should have taken Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade instead of Darko Milicic. I’m a little disappointed but less than surprised that we need to have this discussion in 2007, but Dumars is driven singularly by identifying good basketball players of strong character. I did a story on Dumars and his deceased father almost three years ago, when I was a newspaper columnist and not working for the Pistons, and he said perhaps the most enduring lesson he took from his father, a World War II veteran who adored Gen. Patton, was to surround yourself with good people, whatever their race, and run from bad people – white, black or purple. Dumars’ head coaches (Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, Flip Saunders) have been white. His highest-ranking executives (John Hammond, Jeff Weltman, George David) are white since Scotty Perry, who is African-American, left last summer for a promotion to assistant GM in Seattle.
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Jack (Conroe, Texas): What about Jason Maxiell starting? If they keep him in his role off the bench, he’s almost a lock for Sixth Man of the Year. I personally think he’s All-Star ready.
Langlois: Whoa, Jack. I’ll continue to insist that Manu Ginobili is a lock for Sixth Man as long as Gregg Popovich keeps using him that way. Ginobili will get some votes for MVP if he keeps up his level of play. Maxiell would have a more likely shot at Most Improved Player. He’s a big reason the Pistons weathered the early-season injuries and are again challenging for the No. 1 seed in the East. We’ll table the All-Star discussion for now, but if he keeps giving the Pistons 10 or 12 points and six or seven boards while blocking shots and making momentum-changing plays at both ends, they’re going to enter the playoffs a more formidable team than a season ago. As for starting him, why mess with success? Antonio McDyess has been terrific as a starter and says he now prefers that role. It would be foolish to pull the plug on that move.
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Nikolai (New Jersey): What is Stuckey’s status? He should be due back in the rotation by now.
Langlois: The original estimate was four to six weeks. Six weeks passed last week. But X-rays show the breaks – Stuckey suffered breaks on three fingers of his left hand – were not fully calcified. They’re going to see him again toward the end of next week and proceed from there. Stuckey has two plates and six screws holding the hand in place, but until the bone heals itself they would be risking a more damaging injury by rushing him back into the lineup. They wouldn’t do that under any circumstances, but they’re certainly not going to do it with the Pistons surviving his absence so nicely.
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Jerry (Walled Lake): Why does Flip not reward young players when they play well? Case in point – Amir and Cheikh. When they played together against the Lakers, I thought of Salley and Rodman. I know they are still young, but I think they have the potential to grow into that role.
Langlois: So do I, Jerry. But John Salley came to the NBA after four years and more than 100 games at Georgia Tech. Cheikh Samb first picked up a basketball five years ago and was playing in the Spanish second division last winter. Dennis Rodman not only played four years of college basketball, he was 25 as a rookie with the Pistons. Amir Johnson is 20 and should be a junior at Louisville. They have very bright futures. And there are many teams that could use them in their rotations this season. But they aren’t better than Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell. And even if they’re more likely to make a spectacular play than Nazr Mohammed, they’re also more likely to get caught out of position or turn the ball over or make costly errors. This isn’t a Flip Saunders thing. I don’t think there’s a coach in the league who’d be playing this one differently.
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Josh (Holland): Rasheed Wallace is one of the top players in the league in the post. Why don’t we do more with him on the block?
Langlois: It’s a fair question, Josh. Rasheed is a very effective post player. He’s also a very effective jump shooter. Those skills complement each other. It’s part of why so many coaches consider him the team’s best player. Limiting him to the post might be penny wise and pound foolish. There needs to be a nice balance, and this year I think there has been. About one-third of his shot attempts have been 3-pointers. That’s about right. He’s shooting 38 percent from beyond the arc and 45 percent overall, so you could argue that he should be jacking up more triples – because 38 percent of triples equates to 57 percent of two-point shots. Beyond the numbers, I think Wallace has been much more cognizant this season of taking the shots called for given the game circumstances.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Renee (Troy): What did Joe Dumars say to Rasheed after last season? I’ll bet it was something along the lines of play like you’re capable of playing and be respectful of the game or we’ll trade you.
Langlois: They talked, but Dumars really didn’t do any admonishing. A few weeks after the playoffs ended, Joe got a call one day and all he heard on the other end was, “I’m sorry I let you down.” It was Rasheed. Dumars knew there wasn’t any need for a lecture. Rasheed showed up to training camp 20-some pounds lighter and picked up two technical fouls through the first 20 games – both cheapies.
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Gil (Charlotte, N.C.): I saw a question in Mailbag where a reader worried that Amir Johnson would get upset about only getting garbage minutes and possibly request a trade. It seems to me the success Jason Maxiell is having would be a strong message to the younger guys that if you work hard, you will create your opportunity.
Langlois: You’re right, Gil. And it took Maxiell two years of apprenticeship after four years of high-level Division I basketball at Cincinnati. Amir Johnson would be a junior at Louisville had he gone to college. There is not the whiff of evidence that Amir is getting frustrated. And he came into the league with Maxiell and has gone through the steps with him. He knows Maxiell is deserving of his shot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin (Greencastle, Ind.): So far, we’ve added Dave Bing, Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, Chuck Daly, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Bob Lanier and Bill Davidson to The Palace floor. Do you know if there will be any more additions?
Langlois: Nothing in the works right now, Kevin, but there’s a pretty good chance some of the guys still wearing Pistons uniforms will join the club when their playing days are finished.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byron (Detroit): Jarvis Hayes has struggled a little bit lately. He needs to be sharp coming off the bench. What do you think about Hayes? And what about Afflalo? He’s a very good defender but he has also struggled offensively lately.
Langlois: Hayes and pretty much everybody else struggled in the loss to Chicago, but, as Hayes noted, it was their fifth game in seven nights. If ever you could have predicted a clunker, that was the night. The Pistons are very happy with Hayes. Same with Afflalo. His offense is going to be just fine, but he knows when they throw him out there now that they’re asking him to make an impact at the defensive end and energize the team in much the same way Lindsey Hunter has done over the years. I’ve seen nice progress out of Afflalo offensively since the preseason. He’s learned that you have to pick your spots to attack the basket in the NBA and I think he’s going to develop a reliable perimeter jump shot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha: What’s up with Amir Johnson? Why doesn’t he get more playing time with some of the starters instead of only playing in garbage time? I hope we aren’t creating a situation that will cause Amir to lose confidence in himself.
Langlois: This one has now officially replaced “Are the Pistons going to sign Chris Webber?” as my most frequent Mailbag submission. The short answer: There’s nothing to worry about here, people. Amir wants to play but he fully understands that he’s not better equipped right now to help the Pistons won than the big guys ahead of him. The sprained ankle in training camp hurt him on two levels – it robbed him of the chance to get extended minutes against real NBA players and it took away his opportunity to win over the confidence of his coaches and teammates. The only way back for Amir now is through misfortune – injuries to the players ahead of him – or to prove it in practice time, and with the Pistons in the midst of a 17-game December schedule, practices are infrequent and not rich in situations that will allow him to prove much. Good thing Amir is more patient than Pistons fans. He’s OK. He’s 20 and he knows he’s 20. He was the 56th pick in the draft. He’s a very promising prospect with some rough edges to his game that a team with designs on an NBA title can’t afford to let him hone at the expense of wins.
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Barb (Bridgeport): I attended the Bulls game and there were some guys wearing Pistons hats who’d marked out “Pistons” and wrote “Bulls.” My husband asked why and they said because Chicago had good white players and the Pistons should find some. Do the Pistons plan on adding any white players? (ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?)
Langlois: The roster is ultimately shaped by Joe Dumars, and if the intimation here is that Dumars deliberately has shaped a roster that excludes white players, well … at least now I’ll have a different explanation the next time someone suggests he should have taken Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade instead of Darko Milicic. I’m a little disappointed but less than surprised that we need to have this discussion in 2007, but Dumars is driven singularly by identifying good basketball players of strong character. I did a story on Dumars and his deceased father almost three years ago, when I was a newspaper columnist and not working for the Pistons, and he said perhaps the most enduring lesson he took from his father, a World War II veteran who adored Gen. Patton, was to surround yourself with good people, whatever their race, and run from bad people – white, black or purple. Dumars’ head coaches (Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, Flip Saunders) have been white. His highest-ranking executives (John Hammond, Jeff Weltman, George David) are white since Scotty Perry, who is African-American, left last summer for a promotion to assistant GM in Seattle.
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Jack (Conroe, Texas): What about Jason Maxiell starting? If they keep him in his role off the bench, he’s almost a lock for Sixth Man of the Year. I personally think he’s All-Star ready.
Langlois: Whoa, Jack. I’ll continue to insist that Manu Ginobili is a lock for Sixth Man as long as Gregg Popovich keeps using him that way. Ginobili will get some votes for MVP if he keeps up his level of play. Maxiell would have a more likely shot at Most Improved Player. He’s a big reason the Pistons weathered the early-season injuries and are again challenging for the No. 1 seed in the East. We’ll table the All-Star discussion for now, but if he keeps giving the Pistons 10 or 12 points and six or seven boards while blocking shots and making momentum-changing plays at both ends, they’re going to enter the playoffs a more formidable team than a season ago. As for starting him, why mess with success? Antonio McDyess has been terrific as a starter and says he now prefers that role. It would be foolish to pull the plug on that move.
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Nikolai (New Jersey): What is Stuckey’s status? He should be due back in the rotation by now.
Langlois: The original estimate was four to six weeks. Six weeks passed last week. But X-rays show the breaks – Stuckey suffered breaks on three fingers of his left hand – were not fully calcified. They’re going to see him again toward the end of next week and proceed from there. Stuckey has two plates and six screws holding the hand in place, but until the bone heals itself they would be risking a more damaging injury by rushing him back into the lineup. They wouldn’t do that under any circumstances, but they’re certainly not going to do it with the Pistons surviving his absence so nicely.
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Jerry (Walled Lake): Why does Flip not reward young players when they play well? Case in point – Amir and Cheikh. When they played together against the Lakers, I thought of Salley and Rodman. I know they are still young, but I think they have the potential to grow into that role.
Langlois: So do I, Jerry. But John Salley came to the NBA after four years and more than 100 games at Georgia Tech. Cheikh Samb first picked up a basketball five years ago and was playing in the Spanish second division last winter. Dennis Rodman not only played four years of college basketball, he was 25 as a rookie with the Pistons. Amir Johnson is 20 and should be a junior at Louisville. They have very bright futures. And there are many teams that could use them in their rotations this season. But they aren’t better than Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell. And even if they’re more likely to make a spectacular play than Nazr Mohammed, they’re also more likely to get caught out of position or turn the ball over or make costly errors. This isn’t a Flip Saunders thing. I don’t think there’s a coach in the league who’d be playing this one differently.
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Josh (Holland): Rasheed Wallace is one of the top players in the league in the post. Why don’t we do more with him on the block?
Langlois: It’s a fair question, Josh. Rasheed is a very effective post player. He’s also a very effective jump shooter. Those skills complement each other. It’s part of why so many coaches consider him the team’s best player. Limiting him to the post might be penny wise and pound foolish. There needs to be a nice balance, and this year I think there has been. About one-third of his shot attempts have been 3-pointers. That’s about right. He’s shooting 38 percent from beyond the arc and 45 percent overall, so you could argue that he should be jacking up more triples – because 38 percent of triples equates to 57 percent of two-point shots. Beyond the numbers, I think Wallace has been much more cognizant this season of taking the shots called for given the game circumstances.