The open practice will be at the Palace on October 10th:

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/openpractice_090929.html

I'm hoping to be able to attend, but that weekend is looking sucky for me at this exact moment... family stuff. We'll see...

I want to make the last pre-season home season game against Minnesota. Laimbeer has a lot to answer for. :)

Wanted to go but I'm going to the game Wednesday against Milwaukee

Blaha on FSN tonight and then the next six games are not televised.

Awesome!

they arent televised on FSD.

Game #5 against Dallas will be televised locally there and on NBA TV.

When it says "HDNet" does that mean it's on the nationwide version of "HDNet"? The one that pretty much everyone gets (owned by Cuban).

http://www.nba.com/pistons/schedule/

CV31 has a hamstring, prolly won't play

3...2...1...

No CV, so hopefully we get lots of super-sweet Jonas Jerebko action.

Shockingly, BEN WALLACE IS STARTING

1st basket of the pre-season is a BEN WALLACE TIP DUNK!

TOnight's starters are Kwame, Ben, Prince, Rip and Stuckey.

Looks to be a nice crowd of about 450 people.

That dunk by Big Ben was pretty sweet, tho

Ben with the 1st 2 rebounds of the game. Nice.

Nice lazy pass by stuckey leading to a steal and a layup

Looks like I have to do the computer thing if I want to watch this one.

No FSD?

CHALMERS

DON'T USE IT ALL UP TONIGHT, BIG FELLA

This new Ben Wallace guy looks pretty damn good....

No FSD?

Blacked out. It says Out of Market.

After waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many clicks, I'll give up and watch MNF. Anyone know who's playing?

Big Ben's dunk is up on the NBA.com highlights.

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

Stuckey might shoot 20 FTs tonight, the way he keeps getting hacked.

Hacked on drives or jump shots?

hardly any jumpers being taken at all tonight. The guards are driving the ball to the basket.

Chris Wilcox must be loving this free-flowing offense. He's a +13.

Austin Daye's first basket is a trey. He's the only Piston taking jumpers.

Ben Gordon's assist to Jerebko is now up on NBA.com.

Let the Austin Daye - Tayshaun Prince comparisons escalate to a whole new level after that block on DWade in his first game. Totally clean, too.

Is Kreuester running a new offense? or D? Does it look we're running the same type plays?

everything is a faster tempo, more attacking the rim.

http://www.nba.com/video/games/pistons/2009/10/05/0010900007_mia_det_6play.nba/

highlights galore on NBA.com, including the SICK block Daye put on Wade.

http://atdhe.net/9009/watch-miami-vs-detroit

http://atdhe.net/9009/watch-miami-vs-detroit

Exalante!

liking the physical tone they've set in this game. Great D and rebounding.

I forgot the refs were on strike.

ok...why did Maglore decide to punch Jerebko in the face?

What the hell did Jerebko do? Hit Mags in the fist with his mouth?

I don't see why they both got the boot.

Those Dutch are fucking thugz!

He looks totally gangster.

Pistons hold off Miami late with some good defense.

they out shot Miami and beat them up on the glass. turonvers were the only reason it was ever a close game.

We were up for most of the 2nd half right? They closed the gap there at the end.

I really like Bynum, great postgame interview, too

yeah. the bottom of the bench guys didnt look good.

Bynam bailed us out with some fantastic defense.

Let the Austin Daye - Tayshaun Prince comparisons escalate to a whole new level after that block on DWade in his first game. Totally clean, too.
I thought Prince looked really good in his new number 5

Can someone tell me how Gordon and Stuckey got all their turnovers? Was it shitty play or unlucky?

I havnt watched nba.com, so don't know if this is the same highlights... probly is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DesnE_8xJqM

Box score for those that missed the game:
http://www.nba.com/games/20091005/MIADET/boxscore.html

The 40 points in the paint are promising.

Hopefully Maceo is working on free throws today.

It's weird that they won't be back on FSD for 2+ weeks now.

22 turnovers and it seemed like more. Hopefully it's just an issue of not playing together much yet, but...

Hopefully Maceo is working on his Spanish.

Excellent point.

Macio Bastoñ!!!

:langlois:


Defense, Bynum keep the drumbeat going
Strong Start

Draw conclusions from first preseason games at your own risk, but two consistent themes of training camp have been the eye-opening play of Will Bynum and the emphasis new coach John Kuester has placed on defense.

Both were on full display in Monday’s opener, an 87-83 win over Miami, which played Dwyane Wade 26 minutes over three quarters before shutting him down with the Pistons ahead 68-57.

Many wondered where Bynum fit in a backcourt that already included Rodney Stuckey and Rip Hamilton when Joe Dumars spent the largest chunk of his free-agent bounty on Ben Gordon.

Bynum had an emphatic response in Monday’s preseason opener, sparking the Pistons with 11 points in just nine first-half minutes and finishing with 15 to lead the team on a night 13 players scored.

Bynum created a buzz even before camp opened, showing up at the Auburn Hills practice facility in mid-September off of a summer spent under the guiding hand of Chicago-based workout guru Tim Grover that pared 15 pounds off his taut frame. He’s been going at it daily with Stuckey, earning unsolicited praise from his teammates, and it’s going to be up to Kuester to figure out how to fit four quality guards – all of them bringing something a little different to the equation – into one backcourt.

But Kuester said before the game he wouldn’t hesitate to use Bynum in tandem with any of his other guards, including Gordon, a backcourt that makes the Pistons undersized at both spots.

“I’m not concerned,” Kuester said. “One of the things that teams are going to have to do is match up with them, also. I see two guys being able to put a tremendous amount of pressure on people.”

That’s a philosophy Bynum embraces – applying pressure – at both ends. In fact, he and Stuckey talked during the off-season about the need to do just that.

“Me and Stuckey have been talking all summer,” Bynum said. “Our plan is to give other guards hell, from start to finish.”

Bynum had minutes with both Stuckey and Gordon and, like Kuester, he anticipates no problem playing alongside Gordon.

“We’re going to pick teams up full court, anyway,” Bynum said. “They won’t be able to take advantage of that, regardless. We’re going to try to take as many seconds off that shot clock in the backcourt getting the ball up court. That’s overrated, the size of the backcourt. It’s about what beats in your chest, not the size we are.

“Ben’s been playing well in this league for years, guarding guards bigger than him. And me, I’m not going to back down from nobody. So I don’t think size matters at all.”

“He’s a sparkplug,” Kuester said after the game. “There’s no question about it. He’s somebody that really can give us a tremendous amount of energy.”

The Pistons struggled with their perimeter shooting – they were 2 of 11 from the 3-point arc and equally erratic on jump shots inside the arc, a sign of tired legs from training camp – yet there were a few other notable things about their offense, particularly the production they got from Kwame Brown, Chris Wilcox, Jason Maxiell and Ben Wallace, and crisp ball movement that often found them open underneath.

The four big men – Charlie Villanueva sat out with a strained hamstring – combined to make 15 of 18 shots, score 32 points and grab 17 rebounds.

Even louder than the whispers about Bynum’s place in the rotation over the summer were questions about the defense, especially when Dumars acquired not only Gordon, but another free agent with an offense-first reputation in Villanueva; hired Kuester, a coach who ran Cleveland’s offense last season; and spent his first-round pick on Austin Daye, a 6-foot-11 beanpole with superb ball skills.

But the Pistons held Miami to 37 percent shooting and only a 26-point fourth quarter, when Kuester went with his rookies heavily, allowed the Heat to get close after trailing by 17.

The numbers would have been even more impressive but for a stretch late in the second quarter when the Pistons went with a lineup that included all three rookies, including Daye at shooting guard, where Miami went on a 9-0 run and Wade scored six points on consecutive possessions by forcing turnovers from Daye and DaJuan Summers and converting them both into three-point plays.

“You’re going to win by playing defense,” Kuester said. “I know we’re in the preseason, but I was very proud of a lot of the guys for the way they performed. It’s a work in progress right now at both ends, but defensively at times we were outstanding.

“Everyone was covering for each other, everyone was on a string. I was very pleased with their commitment. Sometimes they had to fight through some fatigue. Some of these guys were for the first time playing in a live environment, but overall they tried to do everything the right way.”


Daye had some nice moments, including draining a triple from the wing in front of the Pistons’ bench on his first shot, threading a perfect pass down the lane for a Wilcox layup, and a spectacular block of Wade from behind that evoked memories of Tayshaun Prince, the player to whom is often compared. Wade spent several seconds in front of the Pistons’ bench laughing it up over that one with Prince.

“He said, ‘Good hustle,’” Daye said. “He respects that. I know he does, because he’s one of the premier hustlers in the league.”



The Pistons like the feistiness of Swedish rookie Jonas Jerebko, and he lived up to the reputation by picking up six fouls in 12 minutes and drawing an ejection, along with Miami’s Jamal Magloire, with 5:04 remaining when they got tangled up under Miami’s basket, went down hard and roughed each other up.

I like that you read these so I don't have to. Thx gla.

Glad to help. I stay informed just so I can keep reminding you when you are wrong, per usual.

That seems like a lot of work for those one or two times a year. Let no one say you aren't devoted.

I find the "work" to be both entertaining and personally enriching.

CV31 out again for tomorrow's game.

Still haven't seen on the court proof of Chalmers being more of a solid PG than Stuckey. Rose definitely seen proof of such, but not from Chalmers yet.

Ben may end up starting if Kwame Chokes. He's look like the same same solid pick and roll guy and had plenty of chemistry with the starters.

Daye is definitely looking more ready to play now than summers weight be damned. He just looks more multidimensional than Summers and being capable of playing SG one play and PF on the next is a nice attribute to have.

Overall i was satisfied with everything including Atkins not seeing the court.

Can someone tell me how Gordon and Stuckey got all their turnovers? Was it shitty play or unlucky?
It was telegraphing passes i most cases. Trying to get certain guys involved rather than whoever was open. Typical preseason habit.

Want free tickets?


Six prs. of tix in Sec 203 for tonight's game vs. MIL. First 6 emails to dwieme@palacenet.com - each gets a pair.

Posted 3 minutes ago.

Any way to watch the game tonight?

Pistons were getting outplayed before Ben Gordon checked in, and now they're up 6....

Stuckey and Gordon are going off on these fools.

hopefully we use this guard depth to our advantage when the season starts...

^ Or use Tay.

the #1, #2 and #3 scorers in this game are all Piston guards.

^ No Tay?

why is it so damn difficult to host video on here....

Bynumn, Suckey and Gordon are the 3 best players tonight, by a good margin.

All 3 might have 20+ by the time its over.

why is it so damn difficult to host video on here....

It's considered gimmiky. :)

Don't pay any attention to me, not that anyone is. I'm just drinking some beers and trying to be annoying and funny at the same time.

through 2 games, i'm liking the direction of this team. They play like they have a purpose again.

Its pretty clear that guards are going to dominate the offense.

a T for Max, I see

I see that Crapfino is da crap.

Bynum, Stuckey and Gordon are have 20+ points.

Ben Gordon has a nasty poster dunk on some milwaukee scrub. I didnt even know he could get that high.

Kwame a rebound shy of a double double.

stats tonight from the Stuckey/Gordon/Bynum 3-headed monster:

20/31 FG, 5/7 3pt, 23/27 FT, 68 points.

Washington had a nice crossover to a 360 spin to a layup in traffic.
Highlight of the game

Daye and Delfino were ejected for fighting at the 2nd.

GOD DAM Will Bynum is a beast!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRIpK7H1pOw

Fuck what else he did in the game, his 4 passes here were amazing

Innnteresting... Bynum had great performances in both games, but the worst +/- of the entire team in both.

Look who has he been playing with, though.

Put him out there with the first unit and I think it would be different. But to be fair, I only saw the first game and not the second.

it would be different both ways, defensive starters would be out there pn the other team. Enjoy the preseason, dont hyperbole it.

Magloire, Jerebko suspended for altercation
6 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP)—Miami Heat center Jamaal Magloire(notes) and Detroit’s Jonas Jerebko(notes) have been suspended by the NBA for their altercation in a preseason game.

Magloire was penalized two games for starting the altercation and striking Jerebko in the face with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter of Detroit’s 87-83 victory on Monday. Jerebko was suspended one game for retaliating and hitting Magloire in the face.

The NBA says Thursday that both players would serve their suspensions beginning with the first regular-season games they are physically able to play.

We'll never beat Orlando now.


Also, Pistons.com is advertising an "economy play". I didn't look at it but I assume it's only tickets to games the Pistons are sure to lose. So all of them then.

Tickets for the game in GR have traditionally been north of $40 each, but I heard a radio commercial (featuring Mason!) where they are offering 4 tickets for $80.

I like how they are forcing people to buy 4 tix to get that price. Gotta sell them in volume or they got no shot.

$2 tickets

http://www.pistonspecials.com/mycompanyoffer/home.jsp

username: preseason
password: pistons

Hawk game offer ends in ten minutes.

CV31 will miss the next game, too.

Daye got suspended for opening night for playing footsie with Delfino

This team is even fun to listen to on the radio. The tempo is really quick. They transition from defense to offense pretty well.

Rodney Stuckey made a sick crossover on Mario west. He stumbled backwards about five feet, and watched from the floor as Rodney hit a buzzer beating jumper to end the half. Brought a lot of oohs and aahs from the palace.

I'm liking the confidence from Rodney.

once again, three piston guards are close to 20 points each.

Doubt Rip plays the 4th, though.

I'm not sure people realize yet just how unfair it is to start Rip and bring Ben Gordon off the bench behind him.

Gordon through 3 games has pretty much toyed with the other team's backups.

Gordon swishes one from halfcourt!

Any 'pissin and moanin' this year? I mean about coming off the bench or lockers or the coach?

I can't watch any of these games.

Actually, this team seems to have the attitude that they just want to come out and have fun.

Of course, you wonder how long it will last, but this group seems to have been purged from all the negativity from last year.

Kuester isnt your normal coach. He prefers positive reinforcement,which is very uncommon for an NBA coach. So far though, his guys are buying into things.

I still have to see how this translates over 82 games, but Kuester's system maximizes his talent.

Cool.

I guess I have to wait for opening night to see them.

Pistons are 3 for 3 in preseason.

They've been fairly consistent in their approach in every game as well. Wear down the other team with guard depth.

The 4 guards accounted for 68 of their 100 points tonight.

Whats Tay been up to?

I'm assuming 4 and 5 are basically rebounding if the guards are doing most of the shooting.

Actually, Tayshaun and Daye have been running a lot of point-forward.

The bigs are basically finishers and pick-setters in this offense though, yeah.

JUST found out I can listen to The Ticket online. Damit

If anyone wants to offer the rationale behind not televising these games, I'd love to hear it. Horrible way to market the team to the fans. I don't care if you have to take a loss due to struggling ad/sponsorship sales, just horrible planning.

game highlights get updates on NBA.com pretty regularly. Between that and the radio, I can deal with it.

What does it hurt for them to broadcast the Pistons games out here? Instead it's all this "game not available in your area" bullgumby. Fug that poo.

jv3ls3Na1g4

Saw the full highlights on NBA.com. I'm looking forward to watching another full game on Thursday -- it's on NBA TV, in case you didn't know -- and formulating my own opinions on how this team could do this year. Things look promising so far, but it's preseason. Teams still want to win even in preseason ball though, and it's not like we're riding our top guns to win against scrubs.

Also, Stuckey looks to be making a leap this year, IMO. A big one.

Also, Stuckey looks to be making a leap this year, IMO. A big one.
Yeah, but not as a PG. As is the case with the two other pre-season games, he had more turnovers than assists.

As for the rest of the game, I doubt that we win too many games when we're that badly beaten on the offensive glass.

Went to the game. Exactly zero Pistons boxed out the entire game (maybe Wallace but he wasn't in there long). The interior rotation was dog shit. Kwame looked decent offensively but he's not going to magically find lateral quickness to effective against anything but giants. Maxiell was dog shit defensively, it's pretty clear he's never going to learn to box out. We are going to get MURDERED in 2nd chance points this season.

Played the 3 guard lineup for almost an entire quarter (2nd half of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th). It doesn't look as outsized as I thought it would with Stuckey's high and Gordon's muscle but it HAS to score to stay out there as they aren't getting stops in it. Even with those three on the court Bynum was clearly at a higher speed than anyone else. With such awful bigs and 4 guards who I legitimately want on the court I'm resigned to the 3 guard offense.

Curry would love this offense because we aren't going to be running a lot of plays. It as basically down screens for Rip and then calls for screens from the guards whenever they had the ball too long. Stuckey only passes the ball away from the basket, never toward it. Bynum got a couple assists on runouts and one drop off after a drive that I recall but high assist low turnover is over.

I'm surprised the highlights don't include the one bang bang passing play of the night. Atlanta was struggling to get back in transition and the Pistons threw a series of lightning quick passes, first from Stuckey on the left side of the arc to Gordon just right of the free throw line, down to Rip at the right base line over to Jerebko on the left baseline for an easy layup. I might have the players completely wrong, it happened quick and I was busy cheering it.

Stuckey had a drive against Josh Smith where he clearly beat him but Smith's freak athleticism allowed him to get up quick enough to block the shot. Against anyone else it's an easy two and even watching it I was honestly surprised when Smith got the block. Bibby looked like he couldn't wait to get back on the plane. Jumped toward the floor after every screen trying to get the call (got the first one, didn't get the next four). For most of the 3rd (I believe) Teague owned the Pistons. I was surprised to see Williams' stat line. It was a quiet 19. Sims lol. What I wouldn't give for even a Pachulia sized talent in the front court right now. We are seriously fucked down low.

Thanks for that, nice to hear some objective stuff from time to time.

Did you use the $2 tickets, if so, how were the seats?

How many people were there?

Stuckey at the 3 is an interesting wrinkle. Rip was obviously too frail, but Stuckey's got some muscle to him.

Here's the extended recap, including that play you mentioned...

AeN0KObGAW8

Will they be out-sized? Sure. But they will also be the faster team 9 out of 10 games.

I'd rather be a fast, exciting team and suck than a slow, nonchalant, boring team and suck.

Thanks Joe D!

I'd settle for a team that looks like they want to be out there every night and believes in its coach.

Man there are a lot of typo's in my last post. Forgot to say that Daye hardly got on the court Sunday which was disappointing. The kid is silly tall out there on the perimeter and both of the blocks he got were from guys having no experience with his reach. They pulled up and he just put his hand out like how you send back your little brother's shot. Just obvious cases of the other player not even thinking he was close enough to contest the shot.

Did you use the $2 tickets, if so, how were the seats?

How many people were there?

Yup, thanks. The seats were in section 217 row 1. It was about half to 2/5 empty.

Glad to see that the offer was legit. I thought it might have been GIMMICKY

Not sure if 'gimmicky' has lasting power, but if it makes to Thanksgiving or so, I think an emo is in order.

to be fair, Fool, if you're going to go by preseason, the Pistons havent been bad at all defensively or on the glass. They're 2nd in defensive %FG and 10th in rebounding differential.

1st game I havent seen or heard at all, but from the looks of the box score, its ugly...

The defensive statistics are actually ok. The offense is just dreadful.

Gordon ,Stuckey and Bynum are a combined 5/28. Ouch.

With no scoring down low, that tends to happen to the Pistons. It's really fun to watch when all of those jumpers fall, but when they don't, they don't have a chance.

except they havent been taking jumpers. For the most part, they've been driving to the basket all preseason.

Looking at the shot chart, pistons guards have missed 9 shots in the paint so far.

....nice to have a guy like Daye come in and score a quick 6 points in 39 seconds...

....from 13 down to take the lead. Team's got some scrap to them.

Jerebko is playing his ass off out there. Just shy of a double double.

...and the Pistons, as is their custom in grand rapids, lose a preseason game.

Something about that arena. They always shoot very poorly.

Looking forward to our first national TV game on thursday.

Is Bynum playing THAT well, or is he just getting minutes cos its preseason?

Is he playing well enough to contend with Stuckey for serious minutes?

The wizards radio guys were raving about him all night long, and he wasnt even having one of his better games.

Detroit News >> Pistons' Tayshaun Prince might sit vs. Mavs with cut toe http://bit.ly/3ewkgq

So is this game on regular old HDNet tonight? (in addition to NBA TV, which I don't have)

yes.

Kwame with those 'hands of stone'

Not on HDnet for me. I have some show about Puerto Rico.

Pissed off.

You should see the game. ITS AWESOME! and naked chicks every where too.

Red Wings game on.

NBA preseason > NHL regular season, IYGO?

USF v Cinci
Phillies v Dodgers
Pistons v Dallas
Wings

Not in that order but all sorts of sports on tonight.

Rick Nation in the house!

Looks like Stuck's putting up some shots tonight.

He's taken more than twice as many as anyone else on the team.

At least he's making some, I guess.

WTF IS WRONG WITH RIP'S HEAD???? THAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW!

Gordon with a nice hard foul.

re: rips head...didn't he do sumpin crazy last preseason too?

Y'all getting Mavs announcers?

"Jason getting out hustled 2 plays in a row" or something

I was thinking in the 1st half...

Gordon actually finishes! unlike that other guy we had last year. He actually creates his own shot and makes it..an acceptable amount of the time.

Yeah, Dallas announcers.

Check this guy out...low tops, knee socks...lol who is that?

Do you really need to try out a guy named Beaubois (pronounced Bo-Bwa)? Just cut that bitch on principle.

Seriously, I assume Daye is never going to break weird bones in all over the place every season and never be healthy.

What's up with Jerebko pretending like he has range and taking these long distance J's that barely hit the rim.

^ preseason hope and dreams

Replacement refs ...right?

I like their numbers... 139 lol

Of course the guy named Skin is bald.

How nice. They guy calls Dad a perv right in front of his daughter. GOOD JOB SKIN!

Deron Washington...goin old school.

lol 149

His wife was there too.

Jerebko with a reverse dunk...this game is cracking me up for some reason.

ps;nw

Thanks for the PBP though.

playoffson; not watching

I think I'm going to go ahead and let others wax poetic about this game. We did hang with them in the 1st half, I guess.

5 preseason signs with carryover potential
Take 5

:langlois:
by Keith Langlois


Unofficially, there hasn’t been a day since training camp opened 17 days ago that John Kuester hasn’t used the phrase “work in progress” to describe some aspect of his basketball team – either the Pistons’ offense, their defense, the rotation, the rookies or something else.

The regular season opens in less than two weeks, but the notion that the Pistons will be fully evolved by the time they tip off in Memphis Oct. 28 isn’t quite right. The truth is they’ll be a work in progress all season. That’s true of every team, to some degree, but more so with one that’s added a new coach and eight new players and chopped two years off the average age of the roster – and significantly more than that off the core.

But so far, nearly every indication from the evolution is a positive one. You’d have to scratch pretty hard to find anything to categorize as “ominous” through the first four preseason games. The team free-throw percentage of 70 percent isn’t good enough. Rodney Stuckey’s jump shot has been crooked in two of the four games, though he’s still shooting a respectable 43 percent. The turnover count is too high, 19 a game. Tayshaun Prince’s numbers are underwhelming, though veterans of his standing are usually more focused on finding out what their teammates are capable of handling than exerting their influence in preseason games.

On the other side of the coin, let’s sort through five positives that seem likeliest to carry over to the regular season:


1. Will Bynum is for real – That 20-game glimpse we caught of him last season, when he averaged 12 points in 21 minutes a game over the final quarter of the season, wasn’t a mirage.

Bynum, a gym rat by nature, went into hyperdrive over the summer to fine tune his game and his body, losing 15 pounds. He says he feels quicker and springier and it’s translated into a team-leading 18 points a game in 24 minutes. He’s shooting 50 percent – sensational for a perimeter player – and getting to the foul line almost eight times a game. Better yet, he’s making his trips count, shooting .935, 29 of 31. He’s also leading in assists (4.0) and steals (1.75).

Bynum puts a defense on its heels, constantly in attack mode. What’s been really encouraging is his growing feel for playmaking off of his forays to the rim. With their depth at guard, the Pistons have the luxury of using Bynum in moderate doses, meaning he’ll be fresh in relation to the poor slobs who have to defend him midway through the fourth quarter.


2. The 3-guard offense is more than a gimmick – A reporter asked Kuester this week when he was going to establish a pecking order among the guards, because he couldn’t possibly give all four of them the minutes their play warrants.

“Why not?” Kuester said – and you had to be there to validate the sincerity of Kuester’s reply.

He’s truly committed to using Bynum, Stuckey, Rip Hamilton and Ben Gordon to the fullest extent of their abilities and seems perfectly content to take his chances with the matchup advantages that cut both ways when he puts Stuckey, say, at small forward.

So the issue then becomes one of finding room for five-plus players at three perimeter spots instead of four guards at the two backcourt positions.

Here’s what I mean by five-plus: the four guards plus Tayshaun Prince make five for the two backcourt spots plus small forward. The plus is Austin Daye. We know the four guards and Prince are going to get their minutes and that’s plenty to spread across five players. If Kuester divides the minutes evenly among the five – and it won’t be an even split – it would give each player 29 minutes. That’s in line with expectations for Stuckey and Gordon and not far off for the three others.

Daye’s the wild card, which leads us to …



3. Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko are good enough now – The Pistons have seen enough flashes from both DaJuan Summers and Deron Washington to give Kuester confidence that if injury struck and he needed to expand the rotation to include them on a limited basis, they’d be OK.

But Daye and Jerebko are pushing hard for broader roles even on a roster that includes 10 veterans who merit rotation spots.

Daye’s shooting stroke is making him hard to ignore. Put Gordon in one corner and Daye in the other and the Pistons give Stuckey and Bynum lanes to the basket and Hamilton and Prince the openings for spot-up 3s and to probe for mid-range shots. And it’s not just Daye’s perimeter shot that makes him attractive. When he drained a 3-pointer against Washington the other night, he set up his next move – feinting another long jumper, then putting it down and winding up with a dunk and a three-point play.

Jerebko is the biggest individual surprise of camp – sort of. I use the qualifier because he hasn’t shown the Pistons anything they didn’t believe him capable of doing – it’s just that he’s doing it so quickly while being matched up against the likes of Josh Smith and Antawn Jamison. Kuester has said repeatedly over the past week that players who get thrown into the game better find a rhythm immediately, because he won’t hesitate to go with someone else. Right now, Jerebko is that someone else.



4.The defense looks solid – Even after Washington, loaded with firepower, had a big second half the other night, the Pistons still rank No. 5 in the NBA in field-goal percentage defense through four games.

Kuester sited “slippage” in fulfilling defensive assignments – failures to execute the proper rotations, communication breakdowns, not holding their “tags” long enough as offensive players cut through the lane. He didn’t name names, of course, but the bottom line for him is that defense is always a five-man effort. He won’t let any single player drag the unit down, so playing time among the big men is really going to come down to which ones among the five veterans – Kwame Brown, Ben Wallace, Chris Wilcox, Jason Maxiell and Charlie Villanueva – plus Jerebko he trusts most defensively.

He trusts Wallace implicitly, he’s effusively praised Brown, the biggest of the bunch, who has displayed improved offense, hands and reliability. Villanueva, when he returns from the hamstring injury that’s sidelined him throughout preseason, is the one among them who provides an inside-outside scoring threat.

That means Wilcox and Maxiell are most vulnerable, in all likelihood, to Jerebko’s emergence. And Kuester’s vigilance on defense will mean his rotation decisions will be predicated on defensive reliability first and foremost.


5. John Kuester’s adaptability maximizes the roster – I doubt that if Joe Dumars had handed Kuester the roster the Pistons finished with last season that he’d be telling his guards to push at every opportunity and playing Stuckey at small forward.

That’s another way of saying this is a coach who bends his philosophies to fit the roster, rather than the other way around, and that’s not always a given. That’s a good sign, especially for this team. It’s a roster without the dominant scorer who demands all strategy must revolve around him, but instead one with a wildly diverse array of skills up and down the roster.

It will take someone with a deft hand for mixing and matching to find the right lineup combinations, someone who can spot the weakness in an opponent’s lineup and know quickly which among the many tools in his belt would best exploit the opening.

Just as Kuester isn’t wedded to any notions of system superiority, neither does he seem likely to stick with rotations or lineup combinations out of comfort. So far, he’s given the impression he’ll use anybody at any time if he likes the results. And so far, there’s been much to like.

NBA SUPER CHAMPIONS!!

LMAO at gimmick.

Back to back blowout losses and Kstat is nowhere to be seen.

We need your recaps, K.

hard to recap game I cant watch or listen to.

Otherwise, I was upstate yesterday anyhow.

Thought they had another Sunday game not Saturday. I hate when that happens.

ASB says Tay is done until opening night, at the earliest.

Some Pistons pre-season rankings, if you care.

Opponents' PPG:
20. Detroit 101.6

Opponents' FG%:
27. Detroit 45.8

Pistons' Kwame Brown to have X-rays on hand http://bit.ly/HHChh

Also, have Atkins and Baston been cut yet?

Pistons' Kwame Brown to have X-rays on hand

And Kwame's x-ray results just came in...






http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/145781860_ad9a370b66.jpg

Also, have Atkins and Baston been cut yet?

Maceo just got the axe.

My guess is that CV and Big Ben are the starting 4 and 5 on Opening Night.

ASB says Tay is done until opening night, at the earliest.
I really doubt Tay's consecutive game streak is in jeopardy. They just want more play for the rooks.

Now they're saying he's ready to go.

No Kevin Love, no Al Jefferson, no problem.

Pistons gave up 122 in a loss to the TWolves.

Corey Brewer owned.

I want to make the last pre-season home season game against Minnesota. Laimbeer has a lot to answer for. :)
I couldn't make it for work reasons... apparently, I missed a foul fest.

How much stock are we really putting into the pre-season games?

I realise that Coach Q is using the guards a lot and we seem to be scoring at a pretty good rate but isn't that what we expected?

If we had our full frontline on hand for every game and they played rotation type minutes I might actually give a fuck about these games but...

"Super" Nova missed most of the games. So did Prince. Ben and Kwame sat out v Minny. For crying out loud from all reports "Jonas "The Walls of" Jerebko is light years in front of Maxiell for a rotation spot.

Is he really gonna win a regular rotation spot ahead of Ben, Kwame, Nova, Wilcox and Maxiell?

Isn't Daye gonna play some minutes at PF because we're using our guards so much?

I gather that most of the games we've been lit up so far have been games Ben Wallace has missed.

In the games Ben has started, our defense has been better.

How badly is Ben's knee injured?

no idea. I read it was only a bump of the knees.

Hopefully he plays tonight.

I wonder if they're just holding him out so he's fresh for opening night?

The Pistons close out their preseason schedule tonight against the Bucks at the Bradley Center. Tune in to FS Detroit and 97.1 FM The Ticket for the 8:30 p.m. tipoff. Catch Pistons In-Focus on FS Detroit at 8 p.m. tonight.

Hot damn, a TV game.

Piston in-focus special on Grant Hill right now.

Don't know why I'm watching this, but I am.

when did we get that one bald headed dude?

Holy shit that is a quiet arena

"OFF THE HIGH GLASS AND HE HIT IT"

Bynum is fun as hell to watch.

Ben is too.

Gordon

It looks like Benny G is a good sign. I don't know what we need to build around him to make us successful, but he damn sure looks like something to build around.

The Stuckster!

Unstuck this thread.

Anyone want to do an OGT for Wednesday?