If he's signed to a 2 year deal, I'd have to assume Hunter is out of the picture. Hopefully he's stepping into an exec position, since there's no room left as an assistant.

yeah but you've got to consider ALL of his stats- he's shooting 100% when it comes to fucking up trades for his team.


3.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per with 36% shooting (32% from beyond the arc). Sounds like a real stud.

Very true. I guess I should give him more credit.

We can't assume Lindsey is done. Maybe he has a not imminent, yet really imminent deal involving Chauncey afterall.
Or, perhaps, Lindsey will be done but brought signed to a contract in March, or whenever the deadline is to have people still available for the playoffs.

We can't assume Lindsey is done. Maybe he has a not imminent, yet really imminent deal involving Chauncey afterall.
Or, perhaps, Lindsey will be done but brought signed to a contract in March, or whenever the deadline is to have people still available for the playoffs.
Yeah, Dumars will wait until the last possible moment for Hunter to retire/re-sign, etc in case he makes a deal. Although, if he moves Billups and doesn't get a PG back he'll probably need to get a better backup than Hunter.

He's probably a shitty plan B, but could mop the floors after games instead. Hopefully Joe has bigger things on his plate than George the janitor.

How about Quinton Ross...
Can he play SF? Is he too similar to Afflalo?

He could be an option for backup SF.

Man just let sharpe get the job or sign herrmann

Yeah, Dumars will wait until the last possible moment for Hunter to retire/re-sign, etc in case he makes a deal. Although, if he moves Billups and doesn't get a PG back he'll probably need to get a better backup than Hunter.

The way some people are raving, they think Bynum IS the better backup.

More details on Bynum's contract:


Bynum, Sharpe agree to terms with Pistons
Free-agent guard had been in NBDL, overseas; Sharpe has interesting past.

Eric Lacy / The Detroit News

The Pistons have agreed to two-year contracts with free agent Will Bynum and second-round draft pick Walter Sharpe, representatives for the players said Tuesday.

Mark Bartelstein, Bynum's agent, said he expects the point guard to sign today. Bartelstein added that the deal gives Bynum about $700,000 guaranteed the first year, before a second-year team option.

"He has great quickness, can really put the ball on the floor and is a big-time athlete," Bartelstein said.

Sharpe, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound forward, signed his guaranteed contract earlier this month during the beginning of the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League, said his agent, Danny Servick. Sharpe is considered by several scouts as someone with "lottery pick level talent," Servick said.

Bynum, a 6-foot, 185-pound Chicago native, played college basketball at Arizona for a season and a half, then transferred to Georgia Tech.

His last stint in the NBA was with Golden State -- 15 games during the 2005-06 campaign, according to NBA.com.

With the Warriors, Bynum averaged 3.6 points and 1.3 assists. He also has spent time in the NBA's Development League, overseas in Tel Aviv, Israel, and turned down several offers outside the United States to play for the Pistons, Bartelstein said.

"He could have made at least twice as much overseas," Bartelstein said.

Bynum's performance earlier this month in Las Vegas appears to have been the deal-maker.

Bynum started three of the five games summer-league and averaged 11.8 points and 3.2 assists.

Sharpe, the 32nd overall pick, started all five summer-league games for the Pistons and averaged 8.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals.

Sharpe has an interesting past -- to say the least. He played at Alabama-Birmingham, after a stint at Mississippi State, but experienced several off-court problems in college that shortened his career.

Sharpe, however, was recently diagnosed with the sleep disorder narcolepsy, is taking medication for it and primed to turn his life around, Servick said.

"Don't make your mind up about Walter based on what you Google, read or see (online or on TV)," Servick said. "Since he was diagnosed, he hasn't had any problems.

"He's a great kid that absolutely loves basketball."

Eric Lacy?

Where's :mccosky: ?

There was no way for him to fit an "I told you so" into this article, so he took a day off.

Apparently Fabio will be signing a 2yr deal within the next couple days.

well he deserved a chance to backup Tay last year, he always played with effort when i saw him on the floor, i'd rather have him for 2 years than pay some other medicore player like Pietrus, Jones big parts of the MLE, good signing if it happens

Apparently Fabio will be signing a 2yr deal within the next couple days.
If its with us great. I truly think he will be a great factor with more playing time.

I always liked his game. He's got the ability to shoot, we just never gave him consistent minutes. If you look at his numbers from Charlotte he actually did pretty well. With 19 minutes a game he shot 53% from the field, 46% from 3pt land, and was putting up 9 points and 3 boards per game. I'd take that as the backup for Tay in a heartbeat, wouldn't you?

I never got why Afflalo and Herrmann weren't Tay's backups once we got them both onboard, especially after we saw Herrmann play decent D.

Flip was convinced that Valter was a PF, mainly because he has good three point shooting skills, I assume.

Oh and by the way, I haven't heard "Walter x2" yet, but there it is.

Walter xTwzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

:langlois:


Pistons won't spend big on a backup to Prince

The Pistons and Will Bynum tied up loose ends on Bynum’s contract on Thursday, which takes the roster to 12 players still pending decisions by Theo Ratliff and Lindsey Hunter on their returns for one more go-around.

Assuming both veterans decide to come back, that would leave the Pistons with only one more roster spot, which they’ll use to address the situation at backup small forward behind Tayshaun Prince.

Right now, the leader in the clubhouse is probably Walter Herrmann. The Pistons liked what they saw from Herrmann last season. Though ex-coach Flip Saunders thought Herrmann was better suited to playing power forward because of the mismatches he could create with his ability to shoot from 3-point range (lol, I swear I hadn't read this yet!) and put the ball on the floor, the Pistons think he can defend adequately enough to warrant minutes behind Prince.

But the reality is that the Pistons – at least as presently constituted – might not have a full-fledged backup role available for whoever they add to the roster at that position. The emergence of second-year guards Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo, combined with Rip Hamilton’s proven ability to defend even elite small forwards, gives Michael Curry a wealth of combination options.

Stuckey is probably going to get 30 minutes a game next season – but it’s not very likely his additional minutes are going to come at the expense of All-Star guards Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. The most logical way to make room for Stuckey’s expanded role is to use Hamilton more frequently as Prince’s backup when he’s not manning his own position at shooting guard.

At the three perimeter positions – point guard, shooting guard and small forward – the Pistons have four bona fide starters, plus Afflalo, who’s also in line for a greater role this season and is a clear favorite of Curry’s. There are 144 minutes of playing time available per game at those three positions. If Hamilton and Prince get 35 minutes apiece, that leaves 74 to split up among Billups, Stuckey and Afflalo. If Billups and Stuckey took 30 apiece, that would leave 14 for Afflalo.

None of those numbers are excessive, either – and we haven’t allotted one minute of playing time for whoever winds up being signed as another backup small forward candidate.

And that’s why the Pistons politely backed out of the bidding for players like James Posey, Mickael Pietrus and James Jones, all of whom signed for deals in excess of $4 million a year. Just because a team has the ability to use its full mid-level exception doesn’t mean it should. Unless you have a role available worthy of a $5.6 million first-year salary, escalating by 8 percent annually every season, you’ll quickly hamstring your roster flexibility by overpaying mediocre talent.

Ask the Cleveland Cavaliers, still regretting the deals they gave journeymen like Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones and Ira Newble. Two years ago, Joe Dumars gave Nazr Mohammed a full mid-level deal. He took some heat for that one, but step back and take another look at it: He got someone who was his starting center, not a backup with a limited role available, until another option – Chris Webber – came along, and less than 1½ seasons into the contract he found another team willing to take it off of his hands. In other words, that wasn’t even close to a desperation signing.

Flip is a basketball genius, why did we sack him?

So we'll be using Rip MORE as a backup SF this year? I thought that wore him down as the season went on. I thought I read that somewhere, but it might have just been something Kstat was saying.

I didn't have a problem with it. Rip succeeded where Tayshaun failed many times.

That said, we need a bigger SF that won't get posted up too often.

Must have been an article then. Maybe you just came to mind because you were refuting it or something.

I didn't have an opinion on it one way or another. I like Rip's Bowen-like annoyance on small forwards, but tat the same time I'd prefer to not give him the toughest assignments on both ends of the floor.

Well, you said you wanted someone that wouldn't get posted up so much. Herrmann is that guy.

I'd much rather have Herrmann at a bargain price than blow the full MLE on Posey or someone that hasn't proven to be much better. At least you know you are getting hard play from Herrmann all the time and not someone to stand at the 3 point line and chuck all night.

At this point, it might be best to hold onto the MLE to see if a quality player gets bought out.

I don't think there are any FA's left out there that I'd be interested in anyway, other than Okafor and Smith who will have to come in a S&T. I still would like to explore the possibility of Okafor for Sheed straight up, then you could still work on getting Smith for something like Rip/Max or Tay/Max

Billups
Stuckey
Tay
Smith
Okafor

or

Billups
Rip
..... Smith?
Smith or McDyess
Okafor

Apparently this says we signed Valter to a 1 year deal, but I don't have time to run it through the old translator:
http://www.diariodemocracia.com/diario/articulo.php?idNoticia=10667

At this point, it might be best to hold onto the MLE to see if a quality player gets bought out.

Um, didn't we use 4 mil of the MLE on Kwame?

Apparently this says we signed Valter to a 1 year deal, but I don't have time to run it through the old translator:
http://www.diariodemocracia.com/diario/articulo.php?idNoticia=10667
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diariodemocracia.com% 2Fdiario%2Farticulo.php%3FidNoticia%3D10667&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=es&tl=en

Continuity is arranged by another season.

http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/various/images/various29/various29_080303a-l.jpg

Um, didn't we use 4 mil of the MLE on Kwame?

We hadn't yet when I posted that.

Walter "The pivot" Herrmann.

I still like Quinton Ross as a backup with the MLE remainder.

He was renounced by LAC.

Nope, Herrmannator: Salvation for the win. Ross is not the biggest Boss that you've seen so far.

http://www.cnn.com/resources/potd/1999/03/31/top.fabio.bird.jpg

I still like Quinton Ross as a backup with the MLE remainder.
That'd only make sense if we were getting rid of Afflalo as part of a trade.

Nope, Herrmannator: Salvation for the win. Ross is not the biggest Boss that you've seen so far.

hahah

I still like Quinton Ross as a backup with the MLE remainder.

He was renounced by LAC.


Yeah, I'm surprised his name hasn't been mentioned at all. He's a solid defensive player, and he can even rebound well even though he's small-ish.

If nothing else, he's quality depth and can play the 2 and the 3.

Giving MC any more players to work with only increases the number of choices he has to make next year. I'd prefer it if we didn't overwhelm the guy.

He seems like he'd just be a mirror of what we think Afflalo could be.

Don't want him stealing playing time from Valter.