Glenn
03-31-2008, 11:57 AM
:langlois:
He's bordering on Evil Keith territory with some of these responses.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Cheryl (Newaygo): Finally, we saw some energetic defense against LeBron and with him shut down Cleveland’s offense totally fizzled. Is it possible the Pistons have shown the King is mortal?
Langlois: He’s going to win more than his share of individual battles, Cheryl – a lot more. If the Pistons play Cleveland in a playoffs series, they have to brace themselves for the fact that he’s going to get pretty close to his average. It’s the rest of a pretty average crew that they have to dominate. I’ve thought for the past few seasons that Rip Hamilton had become an underrated defender. That said, I was surprised LeBron didn’t embrace the opportunity to use his great strength advantage over Hamilton to try to score inside. If there’s an area of his game LeBron still needs to improve, it’s in the post. You saw the way Chauncey Billups backed down Damon Jones and overpowered him when the Pistons went to that option. No reason James couldn’t have tried the same thing on Hamilton.
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Joe (Marquette): I particularly enjoyed your blog last week about the differences between the West and East being exaggerated, as proven by the Pistons’ record against the top nine teams in the West as opposed to their record against the same top nine in the East. But the Pistons get to play the East’s No. 9 team, New Jersey, three times, while the Spurs played the West’s No. 9 team – a Denver team with a much better record – four times. There is a difference in the strength of the schedule played by the West teams.
Langlois: You raise a valid point, but NBA statistical guru John Hollinger of ESPN.com says the differences in schedules from East to West is minuscule. His daily power rankings have consistently had Boston and Detroit very high, usually 1-2, which they are as of today, and those rankings lean heavily on strength of schedule considerations. Yes, his next six teams and eight of his next nine are all from the West. It’s also true that the bottom third of the West is arguably weaker than the bottom third of the East with teams like Minnesota, Memphis, Seattle and the LA Clippers offering little resistance from pretty much the start of the season. The Pistons haven’t lost a game to any of those teams yet – though they still have to play both of their games with Minnesota – while against the bottom four teams in the East, Detroit has losses to both the Knicks and Bucks.
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David (Grand Rapids): Why do the Pistons play down to their competition? I’m sick of the bullcrap excuses that are given for the Pistons losing to teams they shouldn’t be losing to. I just don’t understand it. Seems like they only get up for games against Western Conference teams. Against Eastern Conference teams, it’s like the Pistons have never played basketball before.
Langlois: Off the ledge, Davey boy. Before the Pistons lost to Toronto last Wednesday – and by the timing of your e-mail, coming in Thursday afternoon, I’m guessing that’s the game that triggered your angst – the Pistons had the same winning percentage (.714) against both the East and the West. On that same night, the Lakers played a home game against the Charlotte Bobcats, who went into that game with a 25-45 record. The Lakers, unlike the Pistons, had much at stake – they were one behind New Orleans for the top seed in the West but flirting with losing home-court advantage in the first round with just a few unforeseen losses. And they lost. The Pistons were playing a much better team than Charlotte on the road. Both the Lakers and Pistons were missing a valuable player (Rip Hamilton, Pau Gasol). A lot of fans of one team pay so much attention to their own team and so little to the rest of the league that they don’t understand that these things happen to everybody. It is impossible – and if you consider this a “bullcrap” excuse, I won’t apologize for it – to be at your best in a competitive environment 82 times a year, not counting preseason and postseason. The other team gets paid, too, you know. And that Toronto team, before Chris Bosh’s knee injury, was playing at a very high level and about to overhaul Cleveland for home-court advantage in the first round. So if you consider that playing down to the competition, so be it. The nature of basketball is that it requires five individuals to be in sync with each other’s instincts and understandings thousands of times over the course of a game – and some nights, no matter how much effort is poured into the product, it just doesn’t click. It never ceases to amaze me how people who’ve watched basketball for any length of time don’t understand that much. Davidson beat Georgetown last week in the NCAA tournament and it’s celebrated. The truth is there’s a much wider talent disparity between Davidson and Georgetown than there is between the Lakers and the Timberwolves – yet the pro team that loses to a lesser team is automatically slapped with the tag of not putting out the necessary effort. Is effort sometimes the root of NBA upsets? Sure. But it’s usually something a little more complex than that. Let’s exercise our brains, people.
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Dena-Rose (New York): With all of the expiring contracts at his disposal and the opportunity such assets would have afforded Joe Dumars had they been properly converted, I’m perplexed at his failure to address the Pistons’ most glaring weakness by acquiring a player with the ability to have a greater impact on the team than Juan Dixon or Theo Ratliff. The Pistons are destined to disappoint again, but unlike previous meltdowns, this year’s failure will be squarely on Joe Dumars’ shoulders.
Langlois: Sheesh! What a cranky bunch this week. Expiring contracts are handy, Dena-Rose, but they’re not a magic bullet. If you’re suggesting Joe D could have turned Walter Herrmann, Flip Murray, Primoz Brezec, Jarvis Hayes and Lindsey Hunter into Dwyane Wade, think again. Of all the blockbuster deals consummated at or near the trade deadline, the only one on which the jury has come in is the Lakers’ deal for Pau Gasol. What the Pistons didn’t have that the Lakers did to make such a deal work was one very large expiring contract, Kwame Brown’s. You can’t do 5-for-1 deals during the regular season – roster limits. You say he didn’t address the “most glaring weakness” – but never identified one. Boston, barring injury, is going to go off as the title favorite when the playoffs start, and rightly so. Nobody else is going to be a better bet than the Pistons, so your pessimism is misguided and premature. Must be the Spitzer thing that has you a little off.
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Paul (Essexville): Back in ’04, there was a lot of similar anxiety from Pistons fans as is there now, yet they won the East as the No. 2 seed. I think the Pistons are good enough to beat any of these teams. My only concern is the officiating. If the Pistons get a fair shake, they’ll do well in the playoffs.
Langlois: I’m not big into conspiracy theories, but I’ll agree to a point that officiating should be a Pistons concern in the playoffs simply because they don’t have the type of player that many of their competitors do – a superstar who always has the ball in his hands, constantly goes to the basket and initiates contact that forces officials to make a decision. Usually, that decision goes to the guy with the ball, the superstar. But they know that and they’ll brace for it as best they can so that when Paul Pierce or LeBron James or Kobe Bryant is attacking, they’ll do their best to keep their foul attempts to a minimum.
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Nima (Windsor): Will the NBA ever go to a sweet 16 format where they keep conference play, but when they come to the playoffs only the top 16 teams make it? Because it’s wrong for a team with 37 wins to make it in the East when a team with 50 wins in the West might not make it.
Langlois: Then what meaning would “conference” have? I’m guessing the commissioner’s office will ride it out with the current format on the belief that everything is cyclical and soon enough the balance of power will tip back toward the East.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debbie: Credit needs to be given to a couple of the greatest sportscasters on the planet, Greg Kelser and George Blaha.
Langlois: Thanks for the reminder, Debbie.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim (Kansas City, Mo.): What are your thoughts about the possible relocations of the Sonics and Hornets? I think it would be a shame to let a team like the Sonics leave Seattle. If they do leave, do you think Seattle will get another NBA team? We here in Kansas City would love an NBA team, as well.
Langlois: It seems inevitable now that Seattle is going to leave for Oklahoma City. I wonder about the viability of that market – seems like another Memphis waiting to happen to me – but I’ll assume the ownership group and the NBA has looked into everything and is reasonably confident OKC can sustain a franchise. New Orleans’ unexpected success has the Hornets actually selling out some games, but long-term you have to wonder, too, about that city’s ability to keep up in the high-stakes world of professional sport. Nobody makes a go of it anymore without a considerable corporate base to occupy the suites that generate the most revenue. I think the NBA is most likely finished with North American expansion – Europe is the next frontier, although I think that creates enormous hurdles – so Kansas City might have to wait on another franchise’s misfortune before it gets a shot. New Orleans and Memphis would be the two to keep an eye on, I’m guessing, but I’d think KC would be a logical market to look at.
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George (Toms River, N.J.): I’m a Pistons fan from back in the Fort Wayne days. I hate hearing quotes from Pistons players saying they can’t get up for certain games against poor teams. Why pay good money to see games that some players can’t get up for or don’t care to get up for? It’s disturbing. They can feel the way that they do, but please don’t advertise the fact.
Langlois: I don’t recall the Pistons’ players saying that at any point this season. Last year, maybe, but not this year. And I understand your point completely. Flip Saunders often says that players have to be aware that fans might only get to one game a year, so they owe it to them to put on a good performance, in the same way when he goes to a Springsteen concert he wants his A performance even if it’s the sixth month of his tour. Now, human nature is that you can’t be at 100 percent effort all the time – and even when you, sometimes your best efforts are going to produce less than your best work. And the Pistons also have to balance the reality that the playoffs are coming and their fate is sealed as the No. 2 seed with the need to respect the game and the opponent and keep their focus on the task at hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brenda (Burton): Why has Rip Hamilton started wearing that sleeve on his arm? Is it due to an injury to a muscle or tendon? What’s the sleeve’s purpose?
Langlois: He had some minor discomfort in his elbow. Nothing serious. I’ve never asked the medical purpose of those sleeves – guessing it has something to do with improving circulation to stimulate healing.
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Brian (Richmond, Va.): I’ve watched maybe 90 percent of games this year and I’ve just started taking notice of Amir. Have you ever noticed how on every play Amir is sprinting back to play defense?
Langlois: Amir’s lope is faster than most others’ sprint. One of the very first things about Amir that struck Joe Dumars and his scouting staff is how much he enjoys the game. That’s not always the case with young big guys, many of whom get steered to basketball because of their size, not because of their passion for the game. Not many big guys over the years have earned the right to be called a gym rat – Amir qualifies.
He's bordering on Evil Keith territory with some of these responses.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Cheryl (Newaygo): Finally, we saw some energetic defense against LeBron and with him shut down Cleveland’s offense totally fizzled. Is it possible the Pistons have shown the King is mortal?
Langlois: He’s going to win more than his share of individual battles, Cheryl – a lot more. If the Pistons play Cleveland in a playoffs series, they have to brace themselves for the fact that he’s going to get pretty close to his average. It’s the rest of a pretty average crew that they have to dominate. I’ve thought for the past few seasons that Rip Hamilton had become an underrated defender. That said, I was surprised LeBron didn’t embrace the opportunity to use his great strength advantage over Hamilton to try to score inside. If there’s an area of his game LeBron still needs to improve, it’s in the post. You saw the way Chauncey Billups backed down Damon Jones and overpowered him when the Pistons went to that option. No reason James couldn’t have tried the same thing on Hamilton.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe (Marquette): I particularly enjoyed your blog last week about the differences between the West and East being exaggerated, as proven by the Pistons’ record against the top nine teams in the West as opposed to their record against the same top nine in the East. But the Pistons get to play the East’s No. 9 team, New Jersey, three times, while the Spurs played the West’s No. 9 team – a Denver team with a much better record – four times. There is a difference in the strength of the schedule played by the West teams.
Langlois: You raise a valid point, but NBA statistical guru John Hollinger of ESPN.com says the differences in schedules from East to West is minuscule. His daily power rankings have consistently had Boston and Detroit very high, usually 1-2, which they are as of today, and those rankings lean heavily on strength of schedule considerations. Yes, his next six teams and eight of his next nine are all from the West. It’s also true that the bottom third of the West is arguably weaker than the bottom third of the East with teams like Minnesota, Memphis, Seattle and the LA Clippers offering little resistance from pretty much the start of the season. The Pistons haven’t lost a game to any of those teams yet – though they still have to play both of their games with Minnesota – while against the bottom four teams in the East, Detroit has losses to both the Knicks and Bucks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David (Grand Rapids): Why do the Pistons play down to their competition? I’m sick of the bullcrap excuses that are given for the Pistons losing to teams they shouldn’t be losing to. I just don’t understand it. Seems like they only get up for games against Western Conference teams. Against Eastern Conference teams, it’s like the Pistons have never played basketball before.
Langlois: Off the ledge, Davey boy. Before the Pistons lost to Toronto last Wednesday – and by the timing of your e-mail, coming in Thursday afternoon, I’m guessing that’s the game that triggered your angst – the Pistons had the same winning percentage (.714) against both the East and the West. On that same night, the Lakers played a home game against the Charlotte Bobcats, who went into that game with a 25-45 record. The Lakers, unlike the Pistons, had much at stake – they were one behind New Orleans for the top seed in the West but flirting with losing home-court advantage in the first round with just a few unforeseen losses. And they lost. The Pistons were playing a much better team than Charlotte on the road. Both the Lakers and Pistons were missing a valuable player (Rip Hamilton, Pau Gasol). A lot of fans of one team pay so much attention to their own team and so little to the rest of the league that they don’t understand that these things happen to everybody. It is impossible – and if you consider this a “bullcrap” excuse, I won’t apologize for it – to be at your best in a competitive environment 82 times a year, not counting preseason and postseason. The other team gets paid, too, you know. And that Toronto team, before Chris Bosh’s knee injury, was playing at a very high level and about to overhaul Cleveland for home-court advantage in the first round. So if you consider that playing down to the competition, so be it. The nature of basketball is that it requires five individuals to be in sync with each other’s instincts and understandings thousands of times over the course of a game – and some nights, no matter how much effort is poured into the product, it just doesn’t click. It never ceases to amaze me how people who’ve watched basketball for any length of time don’t understand that much. Davidson beat Georgetown last week in the NCAA tournament and it’s celebrated. The truth is there’s a much wider talent disparity between Davidson and Georgetown than there is between the Lakers and the Timberwolves – yet the pro team that loses to a lesser team is automatically slapped with the tag of not putting out the necessary effort. Is effort sometimes the root of NBA upsets? Sure. But it’s usually something a little more complex than that. Let’s exercise our brains, people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dena-Rose (New York): With all of the expiring contracts at his disposal and the opportunity such assets would have afforded Joe Dumars had they been properly converted, I’m perplexed at his failure to address the Pistons’ most glaring weakness by acquiring a player with the ability to have a greater impact on the team than Juan Dixon or Theo Ratliff. The Pistons are destined to disappoint again, but unlike previous meltdowns, this year’s failure will be squarely on Joe Dumars’ shoulders.
Langlois: Sheesh! What a cranky bunch this week. Expiring contracts are handy, Dena-Rose, but they’re not a magic bullet. If you’re suggesting Joe D could have turned Walter Herrmann, Flip Murray, Primoz Brezec, Jarvis Hayes and Lindsey Hunter into Dwyane Wade, think again. Of all the blockbuster deals consummated at or near the trade deadline, the only one on which the jury has come in is the Lakers’ deal for Pau Gasol. What the Pistons didn’t have that the Lakers did to make such a deal work was one very large expiring contract, Kwame Brown’s. You can’t do 5-for-1 deals during the regular season – roster limits. You say he didn’t address the “most glaring weakness” – but never identified one. Boston, barring injury, is going to go off as the title favorite when the playoffs start, and rightly so. Nobody else is going to be a better bet than the Pistons, so your pessimism is misguided and premature. Must be the Spitzer thing that has you a little off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul (Essexville): Back in ’04, there was a lot of similar anxiety from Pistons fans as is there now, yet they won the East as the No. 2 seed. I think the Pistons are good enough to beat any of these teams. My only concern is the officiating. If the Pistons get a fair shake, they’ll do well in the playoffs.
Langlois: I’m not big into conspiracy theories, but I’ll agree to a point that officiating should be a Pistons concern in the playoffs simply because they don’t have the type of player that many of their competitors do – a superstar who always has the ball in his hands, constantly goes to the basket and initiates contact that forces officials to make a decision. Usually, that decision goes to the guy with the ball, the superstar. But they know that and they’ll brace for it as best they can so that when Paul Pierce or LeBron James or Kobe Bryant is attacking, they’ll do their best to keep their foul attempts to a minimum.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nima (Windsor): Will the NBA ever go to a sweet 16 format where they keep conference play, but when they come to the playoffs only the top 16 teams make it? Because it’s wrong for a team with 37 wins to make it in the East when a team with 50 wins in the West might not make it.
Langlois: Then what meaning would “conference” have? I’m guessing the commissioner’s office will ride it out with the current format on the belief that everything is cyclical and soon enough the balance of power will tip back toward the East.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debbie: Credit needs to be given to a couple of the greatest sportscasters on the planet, Greg Kelser and George Blaha.
Langlois: Thanks for the reminder, Debbie.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim (Kansas City, Mo.): What are your thoughts about the possible relocations of the Sonics and Hornets? I think it would be a shame to let a team like the Sonics leave Seattle. If they do leave, do you think Seattle will get another NBA team? We here in Kansas City would love an NBA team, as well.
Langlois: It seems inevitable now that Seattle is going to leave for Oklahoma City. I wonder about the viability of that market – seems like another Memphis waiting to happen to me – but I’ll assume the ownership group and the NBA has looked into everything and is reasonably confident OKC can sustain a franchise. New Orleans’ unexpected success has the Hornets actually selling out some games, but long-term you have to wonder, too, about that city’s ability to keep up in the high-stakes world of professional sport. Nobody makes a go of it anymore without a considerable corporate base to occupy the suites that generate the most revenue. I think the NBA is most likely finished with North American expansion – Europe is the next frontier, although I think that creates enormous hurdles – so Kansas City might have to wait on another franchise’s misfortune before it gets a shot. New Orleans and Memphis would be the two to keep an eye on, I’m guessing, but I’d think KC would be a logical market to look at.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George (Toms River, N.J.): I’m a Pistons fan from back in the Fort Wayne days. I hate hearing quotes from Pistons players saying they can’t get up for certain games against poor teams. Why pay good money to see games that some players can’t get up for or don’t care to get up for? It’s disturbing. They can feel the way that they do, but please don’t advertise the fact.
Langlois: I don’t recall the Pistons’ players saying that at any point this season. Last year, maybe, but not this year. And I understand your point completely. Flip Saunders often says that players have to be aware that fans might only get to one game a year, so they owe it to them to put on a good performance, in the same way when he goes to a Springsteen concert he wants his A performance even if it’s the sixth month of his tour. Now, human nature is that you can’t be at 100 percent effort all the time – and even when you, sometimes your best efforts are going to produce less than your best work. And the Pistons also have to balance the reality that the playoffs are coming and their fate is sealed as the No. 2 seed with the need to respect the game and the opponent and keep their focus on the task at hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brenda (Burton): Why has Rip Hamilton started wearing that sleeve on his arm? Is it due to an injury to a muscle or tendon? What’s the sleeve’s purpose?
Langlois: He had some minor discomfort in his elbow. Nothing serious. I’ve never asked the medical purpose of those sleeves – guessing it has something to do with improving circulation to stimulate healing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian (Richmond, Va.): I’ve watched maybe 90 percent of games this year and I’ve just started taking notice of Amir. Have you ever noticed how on every play Amir is sprinting back to play defense?
Langlois: Amir’s lope is faster than most others’ sprint. One of the very first things about Amir that struck Joe Dumars and his scouting staff is how much he enjoys the game. That’s not always the case with young big guys, many of whom get steered to basketball because of their size, not because of their passion for the game. Not many big guys over the years have earned the right to be called a gym rat – Amir qualifies.