As I mentioned yesterday, he's holding this today, but I have no idea what time.

Lil' help?

NOON

Anybody know who will be streaming it?

I'd like to know, but being out here doesn't lend itself to knowing such things.

can't find it

think he'll mention any sacred animals this year?

So I suppose that we could know in the next few minutes here if Curry is coming back or not, eh?

Nothing on Freep, nothing on Det News, nothing on Pistons.com.

No WDFN, no mention of it on WXYT the last few minutes.

Haven't tried Mlive yet, but I'm running out of ideas.

i was just streaming WXYT and they said they are talking about Lions draft stuff after the break. Doubt it will be there.

I bet mlive has a podcast of it later

So much for the information age.

I guess so. I had a hard time even finding mention of it at all.

I guess that illustrates just how irrelevant the Pistons have become.

Although, I thought with all the media sharks circling at the smell of blood in the water, there would be ONE local media outlet willing to show off their internet savvy.

Does the lack of coverage mean that we'll actually have sacred cows this year?

Maybe they sold the broadcast to Cleveland?

^ lol

FSD has Sports Science on right now.

I'll take a stab at it:


"It’s an odd feeling to be doing this in April, man. And I don’t like it one bit.

It’s been a frustrating year, man, a transition year, I guess you could say. Once we made the decision to trade Chauncey, we knew that there would be challenges, but I strongly believe that it puts us in a better position to be competitive for championships, and I stand by that.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, man, but we’re fortunate in that Mr. Davidson has laid the groundwork for us to be successful at the highest level, no doubt. There are a lot of things that we are going to be able to do to get this thing fixed right away, and many of those things we are already working on like getting Will’s option take care of this morning, and others we’ll have to wait on. Some of our guys will not be back next year and some of them will. There will be some new faces to be sure.

Michael Curry will be back to coach the team next season. I feel that coaching was not a big part of the problems that we had this year, and Mike deserves a chance to put his imprint on this team, his team.
But to be clear, we are all accountable for getting this fixed quickly, there are no more excuses.

We will be exploring trade options, just as we always do, and we will be very active in the free agent market. The trade has given us a lot of flexibility, and we plan to take full advantage of it.

So with that in mind, I’ll take your questions now.”

Grade Gl'enn's work:

A

Can't give me an A, I have a typo in there. (at least one, that is)

It was a 'content' grade

I'm about to start the "Dumars: Curry will be back" thread and just put a place holder in the first post until we get the actual word.

1130 just reported that Joe said Curry will be back and that coaching was not an issue....he was disappointed that the players didn't bring it every night

^ Seriously?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4111305&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines



Curry to return as coach
Associated Press
Updated: April 29, 2009, 1:02 PM ET

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Michael Curry is coming back as the Detroit Pistons' coach.

Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars held a news conference Wednesday to wrap up a miserable season, and he ended doubt about his plans on the bench.

Curry was 39-43 in his first year as a head coach and his second season in the coaching profession.

A Pistons team that opened the season with high hopes couldn't recover from the loss of All-Star point guard Chauncey Billups in a November trade to Denver for Allen Iverson.

Iverson's past-his-prime game and pride proved to be a bad fit in Detroit.

The Pistons plummeted to the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs and were swept in four lopsided games by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I hate you!

no message board rant can describe how pissed I am about this

I've lost all faith in Joe

I was seriously going to post that this just ruined my day. It really did too...and prolly my week and month and summer.

Total letdown.

I think that Langlois is going to be very critical of this move.

Didn't Dumars say the same thing before he canned Carlisle for Brown?

I....anger.....ANGER......words not.........GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

wow, thats more than dissapointing to start the offseason...

i really hope we bring in some good veteran assistant coaches, maybe with some new players they can make look Curry good...

Michael Curry's job was never in question
by MLive.com staff
Wednesday April 29, 2009, 1:29 PM

The Associated Press has reported Michael Curry will be back as the Detroit Pistons' head coach next season.

According to MLive.com Pistons Insider A. Sherrod Blakely, Curry's job was never in question.

In Curry's first season as head coach, the Pistons finished 39-43 and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers, ending a six-year run of conference finals appearance.

Meeting with the press today, general manager Joe Dumars didn't place the blame for the Pistons' season on Curry.

"The fact that we made so many changes for a first-year coach, I had to step back and be a little more patient than I have been," Dumars said. "During the season I said to myself, 'What affect is this having on him as a first-year coach.' I tried to put myself in his shoes."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

"The fact that we made so many changes for a first-year coach, I had to step back and be a little more patient than I have been,"

so now we know what "changes" can do to a good coach

*changes can destroy any ability to draw up an offense

*changes will cause the complete failure to make adjustments

*changes will cause the complete failure of having a plan to adjust

*changes will suck all inspiration out of a pre-game speech

*changes will cause blank stares


what a joke

IF THE PYSTUNZ FLOP NEXT YEAR, AND DON'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, IS DUMARS JOB ON THE LINE?

Also...:our:

who would fire him? Mr. D's wife?

IF THE PYSTUNZ FLOP NEXT YEAR, AND DON'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, IS DUMARS JOB ON THE LINE?


No.

Curry is Joe D's secret gay lover... it's the only explaination.

Well, THAT and he's giving Curry another chance.

Flip Saunders is ROTL LOL right now.

Curry is Joe D's secret gay lover... it's the only explaination.



That's what I'm talking about!

Flip Saunders is twitching right now.

fixo

Not that anyone cares, but I only buy 3 of the 4 major sports packages so I can watch MY teams.

I think next year the Pistons are removed from the list and the Wings added.

I don't want to be one of those...If blank is elected I'll leave the country peeps, but thats prolly whats going on here.

They've got the presser posted on Pistons.com (now).

:langlois:


Posted Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Now the real fruits of the Billups trade come into play

With the season over, Joe Dumars could say a little more bluntly what he’d been hinting at around the edges for nearly the past six months. The Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade, two games into the season, was marginally about the present and largely about the future.

“It was a one-season shot to see if we could make something roll this year,” he said. “But even in the worst of times, if it doesn’t pan out, it’s not going to affect us moving forward. Well, it didn’t pan out. But I wasn’t committing to five years of this. Bigger picture is we can transform who we are going forward now.”

That transformation will start no later than July 1 – the start of free agency – but potentially even before that. With somewhere around $20 million in cap space – perhaps a few million less, depending on where the line is set by the NBA in early July based on revenue, perhaps a few million more should Kwame Brown opt out of his contract – and four picks in the June 25 draft, Joe D could leverage his assets into a draft-day deal for a star player one of his peers can no longer afford to keep.

And for as attractive as the cap implications of the Billups-Iverson trade were on Nov. 3, they are even more alluring today. The bleak economy has affected the bottom lines of almost every NBA team and driven some owners, many of them slammed hard in the pocketbook in whatever it was that made them rich in the first place, to clamp unprecedented restrictions on their GMs’ payrolls.

“From some of the phone calls I’ve received,” Dumars said Wednesday in his first public comments since the four-game sweep Cleveland administered in the first round of the playoffs, “it’s a good place to be going into the summer.”

That summer essentially began for Dumars less than an hour after Sunday’s Game 4 ended when he gathered his staff at The Palace.

“The first thing I said to them is ‘We’ve got to get better and we’re the guys that have to go and get these players.’ ”

As more teams fall out of the playoffs and turn their attention to off-season business, the volume of phone calls Dumars takes – and places – will start picking up. And he’s willing to talk about anyone.

“The way I prioritize it is impact – impact on the floor,” he said. “Whoever it is – and I’m not really just looking for another couple complementary players – I’m talking about impact. Guys that impact big games, fourth quarters. That’s the No. 1 priority for me.

“You have to use whatever resources you have to get better. I’m talking players now, too. Normally, what I’ll say is we’re going through the draft, free agency and trades to get better. But at this point, whatever resources you have, you have to look at it and say if we can get back, if it can take us to the next level, then that’s the resource I’ll have to use to get better.”

Other interesting bits to come from Wednesday’s press conference:


It was probably driven some by Will Bynum’s strong finish to the season, but Dumars said while he still envisions Rodney Stuckey his starting point guard and thinks Stuckey matches up very well with other starting point guards, he thinks his skills will be best utilized by playing both positions.

“If you go back and look at Dwyane Wade early, they had him on the ball a lot. And then eventually he kind of went back and forth. I don’t think Stuckey is a 48-minute-a-game point guard. I think it’s good for him when a guy like Will Bynum comes in and Stuckey can play off the ball some, too. We have to play him on the ball and off the ball going forward.”

That opens the door for the Pistons to draft a point guard with their No. 15 pick in the first round, not so much for need but because point guard is the unquestioned strength of the upcoming draft. Among the players who could be available at that spot are Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn, North Carolina’s Ty Lawson and Virginia Commonwealth’s Eric Maynor.



No decisions have been made yet on veteran big men Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess, both pending free agents.

“It would be foolish to even say at this point,” he said. “You never know what you may need to do. Stuff starts unfolding. … You can’t shut off anything right now.”




To a question about the security of Michael Curry and his staff, Dumars said, “It’s a non-issue.”

“It was a rocky year for him, up and down. It was a learning experience for him. The face we made so many changes for a first-year coach, I had to step back and be a little more patient than I had been.”

I cried a little today.

Big-time possible free agents laughed a lot today.

that's an oxymoron. There are no big-time free agents.

that's an oxymoron. There are no big-time free agents.

I say dump all expiring contacts and rebuild with the four draft picks and a handful of veteran players who are still hungry for one more run.

You'll suck for a couple of years, and then you'll start looking like Portland (Roy, Aldridge, etc).

I was hoping for some crazy ass Larry Brown rumors for at least a week.

that's an oxymoron. There are no big-time free agents.
I suppose I could expand it. Take two:

Every NBA player who's not currently a Piston laughed their ass off today.

yeah when you look at a team like portland, you realise how far removed we are from being 'contenders'. we don't just need a star player and a few nice other pieces. we need half a dozen more REALLY talented players and we need to dump players like rip and prince who- while still good nba players who can be productive- don't fit with what we need to do.

if we play stuckey off the ball more and play more up-tempo with bynum at PG some, what will become of rip? he's a nice player with good production. but he can't do some key things i think you need from a SG in today's game- he can't finish and he can get his own shot and/or get to the FT line.

and curry IS right on that point- we need to change our style of play and be more up-tempo. but we also need ATHLETES who can compete against the other studs of the nba. we have like 2 good athletes on our team and a bunch of nice ballers. they are outmatched athletically and there's only so much you can do when you're disadvantaged like that.

i say tear it down and start over with a couple of young guys who are worth keeping. trade for future draft picks too so we can get back to where we want to. otherwise it'll be a decade of more of losing and then POSSIBLY, at best, MEDIOCRITY.

a BUNCH of young teams around the league have 3 or 4 REALLY good prospects on their BENCH and will only keep getting better. we will have to make some incredible moves in order to even START catching them up. don't even think about overtaking them anytime soon.

we seriously need a total tear down and rebuild. trade rip, prince, and anyone else we can dump. sadly their value around the league is less than it is in detroit. but we've more than run our course with these guys and they are not cut out to excel in today's game. serviceable players? sure. but not the difference makers we need leading the new generation....

ok sorry for babbling on but i had to get that off my chest.

I was hoping for some crazy ass Larry Brown rumors for at least a week.

I would be estatic to hear LB was going to come coach Stuckey the same way he did Chauncey.

That's a pipe dream that I would dig too, but that all died when he got the Bobcats job.

It all died when he flirted with other teams while still coaching the Pistons.

It all died when he flirted with other teams while still coaching the Pistons.
I'm pretty sure that it came out after the fact that our front office had set him up to talk with the Cavs about possible front office jobs because of his medical issues. I don't blame him for those talks.

I do, however, blame him for things like saying the Knicks coaching spot would be a "dream job".

:mccosky:


Dumars said he received calls from three teams at the February trade deadline and all indicated they would be in touch this summer. One was Phoenix, which is looking to move Amare Stoudemire or Shaquille O'Neal.

Another team could be New Jersey, which might consider moving Vince Carter.

Shaq and Carter, no.

Maybe on Amare, but no old men, please.

So, Joe thinks Stucky is a combo guard? Just checking responses here.

So, Joe thinks Stucky is a combo guard? Just checking responses here.
lol

tread lightly

For you tread on Glenn's dreams....

lol

tread lightly
KL: One thing I found interesting that you said was that he’s going to play both on the ball and off the ball. Some people took that to mean – and I’m getting e-mails on this already – that Joe doesn’t think Rodney is a point guard. What I took from it is he’s still going to be your point guard, but how much of that was an assessment of Rodney and how much of it was what you saw from Will Bynum this year and Will giving you the luxury of playing Rodney off the ball some to get both of them on the floor?
JD: When I make a statement like that, we live in a cynical world. By and large, people will take whatever negative they can pull out of it, which is as opposite of what I meant as you can possibly be. The point of the matter is when you can put two guys on the court like Stuckey and Bynum and have two ballhandlers and have two guys who can break you down and two guys who can create shots for others, it makes you better. It’s really more about putting Bynum out there with him and having two guys break you down off the dribble, which so many teams have now. That’s what it was about. Stuckey is the point guard here. He’s the point guard and he’s going to go forward as the point guard. It definitely wasn’t meant to be that.

Thanks, but no thanks.

If you make Stuckey a SG, he loses his height and size advantages and becomes a decent slashing, decent shooting SG with limited range. We've talked about this.

Finding someone that can run the pick and roll and get good shots for his teammates might be a worthwhile trade off.

And LOL at Langlois' loaded question there.

"Here's something negative that could be implied by your words...now, I don't think you were being negative about one of your players at all there, Joe, in fact, if Stuckey plays PG, gold is gonna fall from the sky. You like gold, don't you, Joe?"

He'd be better than decent at slashing, less than decent at shooting.

He'd be better than decent at slashing, less than decent at shooting.
http://www.slamdunkcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000a6.jpg

tread lightly

If you make Stuckey a SG, he loses his height and size advantages and becomes a decent slashing, decent shooting SG with limited range. We've talked about this.


That's exactly what everybody said about moving Wade to SG after his rookie year.

The problem with Stuckey at SG is more than questioning his ability. We already have Rip and Afflalo and would likely have to move one of them. Right now I like Afflalo over Stuckey because of his defense and in decent minutes he has shown the ability to score, especially in the clutch.

i know this sounds like the typical fan who just wants heads to roll after a bad season.....but i'd try like hell to trade rip and prince for a combination of hungry, athletic young kids, expiring contracts which give us more flexibility for future trades, and draft picks.

i think we've run our course with them and they can't do anything more for us except take up roster spots and salary cap space. i'm not saying they're garbage or, especially in rip's case...incapable of putting up decent numbers. i just think they are too stiff and don't fit into the style we need right now. and again- they've done everything they can do. it's time for change. even if it means getting worse before we get better.

it's time for change. even if it means getting worse before we get better.

I think we just had that this season. Not fun.

oh but it could be SO much worse- we were only a couple of games under .500. we should scrap the dead weight we have on this team and start completely over. that would be similar to what we had when hill left. but it was just what we needed.

we need a remake like that again. it would mean gutting this team and starting over. but it is needed in order to acquire the talent we need. otherwise we'll 'rebuild' but we'll not really acquire top level talent and will be left with a mediocre team for another decade or more, if we're lucky.

trade your assets and stockpile draft picks. worked for the bulls, blazers, etc etc. there's more to it than just that but my point is that we need a drastic rebuild not just trades for the sake of trades. no sense holding on to hope that our cap room is going to allow us to skip the painful rebuilding process. it will help us, but not if we trick ourselves into thinking a couple of players added to rip and prince and stuckey will make us a contender again.

no way. we're light years behind the nba's elite. the sooner we realise that, the sooner we can take the necessary steps to start our climb back to the top. anything short of a total rebuild will be insufficient IMO.

that's why i'm dying to see what joe does, to see if he REALLY knows how far behind the rest of the contenders we are. in a way i wish we had kept billups so people could see how even WITH him we would've been a team in rapid decline. we would've won a dozen or more games. but we would've flamed out again and shown ourselves to be a team way behind the times with no real hope of competing with the elite.

the rest of the nba is athletic, young, quick, agressive, and hungry. we posess NONE of those qualities in guys like rip, prince, etc. that leaves us with ZERO hope unless we purge this roster of the players who don't fit into what we need to compete in the 'new' nba.

We've drafted some young, quick, aggressive, and baby-eating and didn't nurture properly AFAICT. It's not just about the players, but about the organization doing the right things to develop them.

At what point is the player responsible for his fate?

Has Maxiell been in the gym the last 3 or 4 years working on his game as often as he could have?

Has Amir?

You guys have stated that AA arrives early and stays late. That's great. Give the guy a ton of credit. All young players need to do that. But if AA can do it why can't Max and Amir?

And WTF are they doing in the off-season? If Kobe works his ass off during the off-season to improve or refine his game then these guys should be putting in as much work or more to improve.

I hate to say it but I don't think Max and Amir are driven to excel or determined to prove people wrong or have that burning desire to be the best. Which brings me back to WHY the fuck did we draft them in the first place?

Amir I can understand - he was a late second rounder and was likely the BPA and had the most potential. Maxiell? Dude had no fucking potential and a ton of guys drafted after him have gone on to be better NBA players.

The youngsters did what the vets did....took don't give a shit pills.

maxiell's development aside......i'm sorry pharoah but other than a couple of guys, i'm not seeing the 'ton' of guys who have gone on to better careers who were drafted after him. really?

david lee i can see. maybe kleiza. monta ellis......would he be the same player if he wasn't playing in golden state? doubtful.

so, a ton of guys? no way. not IMO. who exactly are you referring to? there are a few other decent role players but none substantially better than or playing much of a bigger role than j-max IMO. louis williams or blatche perhaps....?

i don't know buddy, i guess i'm not seeing who you're talking about. i think for where we were drafting, he was a pretty darn good pick. not a franchise building block but he has been a very valuable contributor when used properly. i don't feel as if we really missed the boat on anybody who was drafted after him. none of them strike me as someone who we made some kind of 'horrible mistake' by passing on them. maybe it's just me.

Even if we say that Max was a decent pick, our drafts have been average at best and I would say below average. It has seemed lately that the picks have come with a "huh?" as to who Joe selected as he passed up seeming obvious players (Chalmers last year) and those picks haven't panned out.

I posted a long list of guys a little while ago in a debate I had with Mxy. IIRC Jason Kapono was drafted that year. He likely would have helped us more than Maxiell has. He would have backed up Tay and his shooting is something we have needed for the last couple of seasons, if not longer.

You mentioned Ellis - maybe he's not putting up the huge digits here but he certainly would have provided that spark off the bench that Bynum now provides. Fanboys here are creaming their pants over Bynum. What makes anyone think Ellis couldn't have done the same?

You also mentioned Blatche, David Lee, Louis Williams - there's 5 guys we missed out on that are better than Maxiell and have a ton more upside to them.

The problem I have with missing those guys is that all 5 of them seem to be much more driven than Maxiell. He has not improved greatly since being drafted IMO.

How did our scouts not see that Maxiell wasn't driven to excel? They do all kinds of tests on these kids, spend big money and they still pick guys that seem to be happy with just making the league.

If I could tell Maxiell was not going to be anything more than a bench role player in his entire career then why couldn't our scouts? It's like how you (higher warrior) KNEW Wade was gonna be a star. How is it possible that you could pick it but our scouts had no idea?

It's their job to break through all the crap and find the real player inside - not the guy who can "perform" a great workout but then doesn't excel in games, not the undersized guy that has already peaked and not the Euro who thinks he's better than he is (Delfino).

But they have failed time and time again. Sure we can point to Memo, Stuckey (likely), AA (likely), Prince and Amir (simply because he was taken so late) but every other pick made by Joe since he became GM has sucked monkey crap. We missed so much talent.

The main ones for me (and really the only ones I care about) are Darko/Delfino and Maxiell. Those 2 Drafts were DEEP! We screwed up both Drafts at a time when we could have built a long lasting dynasty.

Imagine Bosh being here (if they wanted a big how did they not see he was light years better than Darko?) Or Ellis instead of Maxiell? Imagine those 2 guys joining Ben, Sheed, Prince, Rip and Chauncey...

It's like Celtics getting #3 pick and the dude dying. Our guy didn't die - we just wish he did

It pisses me off and every time another Draft rolls around I'm reminded about it. I have ZERO faith in our scouts to pick talent in a deep draft. Imagine how excited I am that we have 4 picks in a not so deep Draft...

The problem isn't that there were better players taken after Max. The problem is that it's happened basically every year. And most of those players weren't huge surprises either. Everyone had Chalmers rated higher than Sharpe. Joe has had 2 good picks (Tay and Okur). Otherwise what has he found? I'd expect Stuckey to be pretty good at #15. He's misses on a few lotto picks, he's failed to solve the backup wing position for many years.

He's a very savvy trader, but when it comes to drafting we are falling short. Don't know if it's him or the scouts, but ultimately he needs to improve the draft regardless.

The problem isn't that there were better players taken after Max. The problem is that it's happened basically every year. And most of those players weren't huge surprises either. Everyone had Chalmers rated higher than Sharpe. Joe has had 2 good picks (Tay and Okur). Otherwise what has he found? I'd expect Stuckey to be pretty good at #15. He's misses on a few lotto picks, he's failed to solve the backup wing position for many years.

He's a very savvy trader, but when it comes to drafting we are falling short. Don't know if it's him or the scouts, but ultimately he needs to improve the draft regardless.

I'd give props to Joe for the Afflalo pick as well. The guy is pretty good and would probably be starting for at least a couple of NBA teams and looks to be improving. That's not bad for a late first rounder.

Yeah, but I expect late first rounders to be solid role players. I think that was a solid, but not spectacular pick.

Zeke is looking for a job.

Zeke is looking for a job.

He just got one.

^ I was going to post that, but I thought I might be missing Fool on that one.

Where does he work? 7-11?

lol...pretty much

There's a little Denny McClain in all of us.

kapono was drafted a couple of years before maxiell, so take his name out.

look, i'm not defending our draft record overall. i just want to be fair. i don't think saying there were 'tons of players drafted after maxiell who were better' is an accurate statement. and are we seriously tabbing andray blatche and louis williams as guys we made huge mistakes passing on them? i don't see it that way.

i don't think so. either way, that's a couple of guys not tons. and while j-max might not have developed the way some might expect, he has improved IMO- just not this year. and WHEN USED PROPERLY (the key problem IMO) he is a very effective role player who can immediately inject life into our team. i've seen it dozens of times when he comes in and changes the game with blocked shots, putbacks, dunks, etc. his jumper has improved significantly to where teams have to guard him. but he's not a 30 minute a night guy. you can't always get starters and stars. sometimes you have to take what you can get, and get a good role player to play a supporting role.

BTW- i'm not saying he didn't have a disappointing year. but so did prince and a lot of guys this year. i don't think it's fair to trash j-max like that. no, he will never be a starter but there are only 12 active roster spots. you NEED good role players too and IMO j-max is one of those. limited in some regards, sure. but he was drafted late in a year that wasn't exactly the best draft ever. there are half a dozen nice players from that draft but i wouldn't call him a bad pick at #25. not at all. i think he was a solid pick and fit our style of play very nicely.

now, as for some of joe's other decisions......i can't defend them all. i just think this is one instance where he did a nice job. and if walter sharpe somehow becomes a legit player, then i'll defend him again. but i'm not holding my breath on that one. lol- that was some crazy shit there but i guess we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out. i was pissed with the pick of afflalo too and while he's a nice player he was the wrong pick for us at that time and in that spot.

here's to hoping joe can pull a rabbit out of the hat with the picks and cap room we have coming up. otherwise, we're all in a lot more trouble than we think right now. we can't afford any more mistakes or bad picks. we need to get lucky, actually, and uncover a diamond in the rough or 2, who can develop into a star.

Max was a good pick at 25, a bad resign, but that doesn't reflect on the pick itself.

I'm not gonna go look up Maxiell's Draft again. I posted the list of names a little while ago and stand by statement that he was the wrong pick at the wrong time.