Now it gets fun.

We're going to "improve from within".

The coaching change is what was needed to get the team's attention.

Joe opened his mouth and then struck out, but no worries, Tom Wilson is on the case.

Let the backtracking begin.


Michael Curry: Stuckey's emergence could eliminate need for big move by Pistons
BY VINCE ELLIS • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • August 5, 2008

Pistons coach Michael Curry is looking forward to working with the team's new starter -- and he's not talking about power forward Kwame Brown.

Brown, a free agent, officially signed with the Pistons, the team announced Monday, after he agreed to a deal last week. The two-year deal is for $8 million and includes a player option for the second year.

But Curry wasn't talking about Brown, the 6-foot-11 former No. 1 draft pick who split last season with the Lakers and Grizzlies. Instead, he was referring to second-year combo guard Rodney Stuckey.

Stuckey had a promising rookie season, averaging 7.6 points and 2.8 assists in 57 games. Curry thinks Stuckey will have a huge effect on the lineup this season. And that, Curry insists, possibly could eliminate the need for a blockbuster trade or free-agent signing.

"You know, we see Rodney as a starter -- he's a sixth starter," Curry said Monday at Wabeek Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, where he was participating in a charity golf outing for the St. Cecilia basketball program.

Curry, an assistant last season under Flip Saunders, is counting on continued improvement from Stuckey, guard Arron Afflalo and forwards Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson, plus the addition of Brown, to serve as the talent infusion necessary for the Pistons to return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2005.

"We have a young group, and if we continue to develop them and add their playing time to our starters, I see us having a chance to be really good right now and on down the road, even if we keep the nucleus the way it is right now," Curry said.

After the Pistons were eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals for the third consecutive season, Pistons president Joe Dumars put everyone on notice, saying the team had no sacred cows and that Stuckey was the only untouchable in a trade.

Almost immediately, speculation centered on trades involving point guard Chauncey Billups and small forward Tayshaun Prince.

But no deal has materialized, and it looks more and more likely the Pistons' core will continue to be Billups, Prince, Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton and Antonio McDyess for at least one more season -- or perhaps until the February trade deadline.

Curry is fine with that. He's also fine with the addition of Brown, whom the Pistons hope will benefit from a change of scenery.

After being selected No. 1 overall by Washington out of Glynn (Ga.) Academy in the 2001 draft, Brown hasn't lived up to the hype for the Wizards, Lakers and Grizzlies. He has averaged only 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in his career. Last season, he averaged 4.8 points and 4.9 boards.

Curry hopes an emphasis on the positive will lead Brown, 26, to become a solid member of the rotation.

"We understand that players have strengths and weaknesses, and we're not going to harp on their weaknesses," Curry said. "We're going to try to be a positive influence when we're coaching them. We are trying to coach from a positive standpoint rather than a negative standpoint.

"That makes it attractive for free agents to be a part of that."




You've got to be fucking kidding me.

I didn't need to read that to know that was going to happen.

Personally, it doesn't bother me. There's obviously no moves to be made. And whether or not that has to do with Joe over-valuing his players or other teams' being reluctant to part with their star, we'll never know.

I do think we'll be better next year than this year. Although I still don't expect much from AA.

I do think we'll be better next year than this year.

You think we can get to game 7?

Looks like they had a staff meeting yesterday...



:langlois:


Disappointment doesn't lead to desperation for Joe D

Kwame Brown officially became a Piston today. The signing of Walter Herrmann, which he first acknowledged last week, will push the Pistons’ roster to 14. If Lindsey Hunter decides to play one more season, that will take the Pistons to the maximum of 15.

That would mean the off-season so far would have consisted of adding Brown to fight for minutes along with Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson; picking up Will Bynum as the No. 3 point guard; and drafting Walter Sharpe to contend with Herrmann for whatever is left after Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Arron Afflalo carve up the minutes at small forward.

It’s a long way from the Carmelo Anthony or Tracy McGrady headline-grabbing move much rumored, so how should Pistons fans feel about their team’s relatively quiet summer?

A move of that magnitude would have made the Pistons one of the NBA’s most-watched teams heading into the new season, in the same way Boston became the most fascinating story of last summer after adding Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen – and the same way Denver became the talk of the previous season when the Nuggets seemingly stole Allen Iverson from Philadelphia.

The point is that adding a big name – at a commensurate cost – is the ultimate high-risk, high-reward move. Joe Dumars was stunningly frank in so publicly declaring his desire to shake up his team’s chemistry that June day when he also fired Flip Saunders, but it’s now clear that his secondary point – about not executing a trade just to justify his desire for change – was delivered with equal conviction. The Pistons are still enviably positioned. Dumars has done great work in amassing assets without mortgaging a fraction of his franchise’s future. Though it’s disappointing to come up just short June after June, disappointment can’t be allowed to foster desperation.

The Brown signing carries some subtle irony to it in that the home-run move Pistons fans crave is one like Brown made possible last February when he was the key piece sent to Memphis as the Lakers wound up with Pau Gasol. Why was Brown the key piece? Because his considerable contract – much larger than the one he just signed with the Pistons – was necessary to make the trade work under salary-cap rules.

In that respect, Dumars’ amazing run of shrewd business actually hurts the Pistons a little. To pull off the type of trade Dumars wanted to execute this summer, he really needed a contract like the one Kwame Brown just finished. Let’s take McGrady as an example. He’s due to make $21 million next year. The Pistons have to come pretty close to sending that much money to Houston in order for the trade to be in compliance. But because they don’t have anyone on the roster who’s overpaid, they’d have to trade $21 million worth of real value.

And I don’t care which combination of guys making that kind of money you want to group – Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince; Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell; Rip Hamilton and Wallace – it would be a trade that would represent significant risk for the Pistons.

In other words, not at all like the two trades that went a long way toward determining the most recent NBA Finals matchup – Boston’s no-brainer deal for Garnett and the Los Angeles’ Lakers’ pilfering of Gasol.

The Pistons didn’t have a prayer of getting either player because they didn’t have two of the three things rebuilding teams in Minnesota and Memphis coveted – young talent, high draft picks and large contracts about to expire. Minnesota got a lottery pick and Al Jefferson from Boston. Memphis got, essentially, three first-round picks and Brown’s contract coming off the books. All the Pistons could have offered without cutting into the bone would be draft picks, and late first-rounders, at that – not enough to even start a discussion.

So that’s where they’re at. A trade is still possible, of course. Once again, I’ll remind all that the Rip Hamilton-Jerry Stackhouse deal came after Labor Day. There are still GMs out there who are dissatisfied with their roster after the draft and free agency have come and gone. The right fit might still be out there for the Pistons.

But if the worst-case scenario is coming back with the roster as it stands now, I think the ace in the hole for Dumars is Michael Curry. It might be putting a lot on a rookie coach to expect that his presence will light the fire – what he called a “burning desire” to win – that Dumars didn’t see last season, but Curry has the rare fill-up-the-room presence that makes you believe he’ll do just that.

Now, if somebody wants to call Joe D and offer him a superstar for a bag of potato chips …

But if the worst-case scenario is coming back with the roster as it stands now, I think the ace in the hole for Dumars is Michael Curry. It might be putting a lot on a rookie coach to expect that his presence will light the fire – what he called a “burning desire” to win – that Dumars didn’t see last season, but Curry has the rare fill-up-the-room presence that makes you believe he’ll do just that.

Calling bullshit on this...



Joe has a yes man for a coach now. He won't make the same mistake his predecessor did of trying to win games.

Whoever Joe wants to play will play. I'll be surprised if Curry doesn't get the nightly rotations faxed into him nightly by Dumars.

The only thing that sunshine up Kwame's ass will do is to clearly show his shittiness. Mark my words, peeps...

I'll wait to see before I judge, but I'm expecting the same solid season performance and flare-out in the playoffs.

And Kwame Brown to bat around at least 196 basketballs with those rocks he calls hands.

So Curry thinks he can do better with what we have? I agree with him that he possibly could. They were underachieving, not being held accountable, getting wildly up and down minutes for the youths, and overall we all expected highly of them. Now they are bums and any trade off we take is good? Bleh..

It all starts with billups and tay, as long as Curry holds them accountable before everyone else, he will get better focus out of the team as a whole. No Stuckey wondering why his mistakes get yelled at and billups screw ups get praised or blamed on someone else.

I'll wait to see before I judge, but I'm expecting the same solid season performance and flare-out in the playoffs.
I'm expecting a title, very unreasonable on my part i'm sure. But I still think it's title level personnel and that its up to the coach to get them there. Alot of pressure on Curry, but if Doc can do it, anyone can? :VOLCANO:

You think we can get to game 7?



Perhaps.

When does Kwame's "potential card" expire around the NBA, though?

Is there a four team limitation to it?

(moving this stuff to the Kwame thread)
Boooooooooo , its relevant to whether its a spin, or we do have a legit roster

Boooooooooo , its relevant to whether its a spin, or we do have a legit roster
Discussing whether or not Kwame Brown will have trade value has little to do with the spin job coming out of the Palace.

Sorry, off topic, back to Spin.

We all knew this was coming. If Joe didn't make a deal, the local guys would just crawl right back up his ass and say "He knows what he's doing, he brought us a championship, blah, blah, blah!"

I think it's a concerted effort to back away from the quote in my sig.

They can try to qualify it and re-interpret it as "it takes two to tango" and "the changes that have been made are significant" but that just re-affirms that Dumars made a big mistake that day at the press conference.

The fat cats still rule the roost here.

The changes that have been made are far from significant. We added a 3rd string PG and a backup C to replace to old guys. We promoted our 3rd string SF to 2nd string and added a new 3rd string rookie SF. That's it. That's our entire offseason thusfar. There is nothing significant about that.

The changes that have been made are far from significant. We added a 3rd string PG and a backup C to replace to old guys. We promoted our 3rd string SF to 2nd string and added a new 3rd string rookie SF. That's it. That's our entire offseason thusfar. There is nothing significant about that.


MICHAEL CURRY

We promoted one of our assistant coaches (after one year of coaching experience) to be our head coach.

I was down with Curry being a significant change when I thought he was going to be a badass.

Then I read this horsebleep:

Curry hopes an emphasis on the positive will lead Brown, 26, to become a solid member of the rotation.

"We understand that players have strengths and weaknesses, and we're not going to harp on their weaknesses," Curry said. "We're going to try to be a positive influence when we're coaching them. We are trying to coach from a positive standpoint rather than a negative standpoint.

"That makes it attractive for free agents to be a part of that."

I thought he was that honest and forthright, in your face, gonna tell you what's up and hold you accountable presence that we need. That makes him sound like..........well.........Flip.

I'm not going to blame Joe on this, he was pissed, he fired off, so be it. The trades were not there and by no means should we be giving our players away for crap. Thats the bitch though, we are good enough to take the ring this year, but the mental shit is what gets to these guys. Flip had to go and I have NO IDEA if Curry can do anything for the mental weakness of Billups....aah....I mean the team.

FWIW, that 2nd group (Stuckey, Afflalo, Amir, Max, Kwame) could be our starting 5 in any game against the Grizzlies and we would win.

BACK TO SPIN!

BACK TO SPIN!

Nice!

Youwannabeamod?

If I was a mod, I'd be able to remove the Cleveland Rocks title under my name, and no one would be happy with that now would they?

Repeat after me, Laker-era Sacramento Kings.

There are worse things to be though, i suppose.

Any era Grizzlies, for example.