Blakely Blog


Tuesday, October 03, 2006

First (official) day of camp ...
The Pistons just finished their morning session a little while ago, with no major injuries or developments to report other than a collision that nearly took out assistant coach Dave Cowens.

Not to worry, though. He's fine.

The first group consisted of the usual four (Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun and Sheed) with the center position featuring Antonio McDyess and at times, Dale Davis.

Folks, DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT READ too much into that. Nazr is still, in all likelihood, going to be the starter come opening day.

However, for the first day, it made a lot more sense to have Dice and Dale run with the first group because of their familiarity with the different sets that Flip likes to run.

Speaking of McDyess, he's packed on a few pounds this summer. It's actually not a bad thing, especially with him likely to see more time in the middle this year with Ben Wallace gone.

It's still too early to talk about rotation and various player combinations, but don't be surprised if the Pistons wind up with a regular nine-man rotation and a 10th player that sees action, depending on the opponent.

That's all for now.

Speaking of McDyess, he's packed on a few pounds this summer.

Dice has been eating up the babies that Maxiell's dieting from.

More Blakely


Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Training camp, Day 2 ...

After watching the guys do some 5-on-5 work this morning, I don't know what to make of Flip Murray.

I like his game, I really do.

But it seems this guy is going to be one of those players that, you're never really going to know what to expect from him.

He's a great penetrator, but his shooting touch is very, very - and I mean very - suspect.

It's not that he can't make shots. In fact, he's one of the better players out there that can score in bunches, quickly.

But when he starts missing, yeah, they come in bunches, too.

Another guy that jumped out at me in practice this morning was Chauncey Billups.

We all saw how good Chauncey was last year. But with a more balanced team offensively this year, Billups might be even better.

One of the knocks on Chauncey was that he doesn't penetrate enough, and get easy baskets.

That should change with the lane not being nearly as clogged with the player who guards Ben Wallace (wink, wink) sagging into the paint.

Couple other training camp observations:

*The Pistons will play more zone (I know, shocker), but man-to-man will still be their staple.

*Most of the Pistons, and players throughout the league for that matter, hate the new basketball which players say is slicker in some ways, crappier in too many too count!

*Rookie Will Blalock will spend a good bit of time in the D-league this year. He has a lot of potential, but he's nowhere close to being ready to contribute to a championship-contender like this team. His jumper is so-so (at best), and like most young PGs, he has a ways to go in adjusting to the game's faster tempo.

That's it for today. Be back tomorrow.

crappier in too many too count!

that's quality, right there. did he mean "crappier in too many ways to count!"? that's only marginally better.

he explained my problem with ronald murray in a nutshell.

that's quality, right there. did he mean "crappier in too many ways to count!"? that's only marginally better.
you need to read the whole sentence

slicker in some ways, crappier in too many too count


Nice to hear McDyess is looking stronger though. As for Murrary, it would be much better if he was slashing rather than shooting jumpers anyway... (hopefully his jumper is good enough to warrant the defender standing reasonably close though)

lol.

i suck @ reading.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Training camp, Day 3...
The bump and grind of two-a-days, at some point, is going to lead to days like the last few minutes of Thursday morning's practice session.

Practice got a little sloppy near the end, which is when Flip Saunders decided to shut it down a few minutes early.

Normally, I would not agree with Saunders doing this. After all, players are going to have to play through different challenges and obstacles all season.

What better time is there to practice that than during training camp?

However, there's something even more important at stake for this team in training camp - keeping everyone healthy.

When you see guys making the kind of mental blunders they were, the only thing worst than watching it, is watching one of them suffer a major injury during that time.

Saunders made the right call in pulling the plug on practice, which at that point, was all but over with, anyway.

Plus, with only 16 guys in camp - 14 with guaranteed deals - wearing down a bit physically and mentally is bound to happen quicker.

There were, however, a number of positives from practice:

Dale Davis looked like the old Double-D in Indiana with Rik Smits and company, the way he rebounded and scored against Nazr Mohammed. Of course, Nazr isn't going to be quite himself during training camp because he is fasting this month in observance of Ramadan, which is a holy month for Muslims.

Another positive was Tayshaun Prince, who is looking more and more comfortable with being a major part of Detroit's offense this season.

That's it for now. I'll be back tomorrow.




so Flip is a mad gunner and Nazr can't defend the great offensiv force Dale Davis...great :p

Langlois Blog

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/langlois_blog_061005.html


Thursday, Oct. 5

Flip Saunders has put together the best staff the Pistons have had since the 2004 championship season when Larry Brown had both Mike Woodson and John Kuester at his side before Woodson got the Atlanta job and Kuester took a position with the Nets to be closer to his home base. Terry Porter and Dave Cowens both have head coaching pasts and Porter, at least, is virtually certain to again be a head coach. They’re both very involved in the day-to-day routine, as is holdover Ron Harper.

Saunders’ top assistant from his first season with the Pistons, Sidney Lowe, was an observer at Thursday’s practice, a single morning session after camp opened with two days of double sessions. Lowe is now the head coach at his alma mater, North Carolina State.

Among the highlights of Thursday’s scrimmage, which wasn’t played at nearly the same pitch as Wednesday night’s – a fact Saunders attributed to fatigue and heavy camp legs setting in after five practices in a 50-hour span: Amir Johnson’s block of Tayshaun Prince’s step-back jumper. Pretty tough to do, given Prince’s size and wing span, but it’s a window into Johnson’s potential. He’s got a long way to go. He makes three or four gaffes in every practice, but he does something every day to remind you why the Pistons took a flier on a high school kid from Los Angeles in the 2005 draft.

Flip Murray’s struggled with his jump shot every day of camp, and he hadn’t yet flashed the trait that enticed the Pistons to add him to a roster that lacked his knack for breaking down defenses until late in Thursday’s scrimmage. Murray made an ankle-snapping crossover to get into the lane, switched hands from right to left in mid-air, and spun in a tough bank shot. Sure enough, the next trip down he also finally knocked down a jumper.

The Pistons like rookie point guard Will Blalock, the last pick in the 2006 draft. It’s a pretty good bet he’ll start the season backing up Chauncey Billups and Lindsey Hunter at the point, but with Murray also a capable point guard, look for Blalock to take the same path Johnson traveled last season. He’ll stay with the team for the first half of the season or so to soak up NBA culture and get a taste for the competitiveness and the physical and emotional requirements, then go down to the D-league to get some playing time and apply his lessons.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061006/SPORTS0102/610060388/1127


Davis highlights sloppy afternoon
Veteran center getting the best of Mohammed, the team's top free agent acquisition in offseason.

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

AUBURN HILLS -- Flip Saunders blew his whistle in the middle of a sloppy scrimmage Thursday morning and sent his players off the court and into the locker room.

Then, after a brief talk, he sent them home.

"I wasn't upset or anything like that," Saunders said. "We've gone really hard and we only have 16 guys in camp and they've gotten a lot of reps. It got a little sloppy at the end I just wanted them to get out of here."

Thursday's practice was the Pistons' third in 26 hours, and fifth since Tuesday.

Saunders said the team had a sharp, intense scrimmage Wednesday night and good conditioning session Thursday morning.

Once they re-started the scrimmages, however, it was clear the legs and spirits were mostly spent.

"The first three days this year have been far better than the first three days were last year," Saunders said. "It's a really fine line between pushing it and wearing them out too much. When it's just not there and you keep going, sometimes that leads to diminished returns."

A highlight in recent scrimmages has been the play of 37-year-old Dale Davis. He was dominating Nazr Mohammed, scoring five straight baskets during one stretch Thursday.

"I think Dale has gotten more reps these last three days than he did all of last year," said Saunders, who expects Davis to be in the rotation, particularly early in the season. "He's a freak of nature in a lot of ways, to be his age and have his body in such great shape. He's been very impressive."

Of course, Saunders was quick to point out Mohammed might be a little weak. He's a devout Muslim and has been fasting in recognition of Ramadan.

Mohammed said he typically loses more than 10 pounds before the end of the month. It's part of the reason why he's started slowly throughout his career.

Training camp photo gallery: http://info.detnews.com/pix/photogalleries/sportsgallery/2006_1005_Pistonscamp/index.htm

Good to read some positive and negatives from camp.

Can't wait for the season to begin and we can see how all this stuff applies to meaningful games.

Chris McCosky


Bumps and Bruises

The Pistons had their first minor injuries of the preseason on Saturday. Dale Davis, who has been one of the best players in camp thus far, strained his left hamstring. Rob Griffin, free agent shooting guard from Belleville, dislocated the ring finger on his left, non-shooting, hand. Both players are listed as day to day, though the Pistons will probably be very cautious with the 37-year-old Davis.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061009/SPORTS0102/610090397/1127


Speak up
Rookie point guard Will Blalock is mentally prepared to spend a good chunk of this season in the development league. In fact, on Friday he had a chance to meet former Pistons assistant Mo McHone , the head coach of the Pistons NBDL affiliate Sioux Falls.

"I've thought about that a lot," he said. "People tend to look down on the D-league, but I look at it as a learning experience. I know I am playing behind two veteran guards (Billups and Lindsey Hunter ). But at the same time, I know I will get better here, too. But if I have to go down, maybe it will be a plus for me."

Blalock has had a solid camp.

"He's coming around really well," Hunter said. "He really listens. That's the first thing you look for in a young guy. Does he listen? I think the sky is the limit for him. He's tough, strong, and he's catching on fast."

One thing he's not, Hunter said, is loud -- and, playing point guard, that can be a problem.

"We're trying to get him to be more vocal," Hunter said. "He's very quiet. But out here, being the point guard, you have to be the guy that tells everybody where to go. I told him, 'It's OK to tell guys to get over there or get over here.' He's got to be more vocal. But he's a great kid."

In basketball scouting reports, many player attributes are precise, measurable entities. How high can he jump? What's his wingspan? How tall is he, and how much does he weigh? How quick is he? What's his shooting percentage?

Then, there is the vague, inexact quality of his hands.

This smallest of body parts is no small matter. While the rest of a player's body is fine-tuned to be strong and quick, it's the hands that do the work of controlling, maneuvering, catching and releasing the ball.

So, scouts ask, does a prospect have "good" hands? Hard hands? Soft hands? Big or small hands?

The answers to those questions can make or break an NBA talent.

Take the Pistons' new center, Nazr Mohammed. Since his NBA career began, the assessment that he has "bad hands" has grown. In San Antonio, his last NBA home, if he bobbled an entry pass into the post, it was likely to make news reports with a dismissive, there-he-goes-again tone.
It's a strange, ironic, hard-to-grasp criticism to Mohammed because he wasn't always judged so negatively in this area.

"It's funny how I get to this level and I have trouble with my hands," he said. "In college, everyone always said I had great hands."

Pistons director of player personnel Scott Perry remembers this, too. He can recall Mohammed as a high school player with considerably more meat on his 6-foot-10 frame. Back then, at Kenwood High in Chicago, Mohammed overcompensated for being a bit too bulky with stellar ball control around the basket, all thanks to his "good hands."

"I thought that was probably one of the things that helped him get to a place like Kentucky," Perry said, referring to Mohammed's college destination. "He wasn't in the shape that he's in now. He was a big ol' guy, a heavy guy, but he had pretty decent hands around the basket, from my recollection."

So if scouts considered his hands good then and bad now, what has changed? It's hard to pinpoint, given the imprecise nature of the assessment.

"That could be attributed to people he's playing with, maybe he's in and out of the games, he's tight or stiff," Perry said. "A lot of things happen."

Having good hands is also one part physical and one part mental. Physically, players with bigger hands -- guys such as Michael Jordan, Chris Webber, Shaquille O'Neal and Vince Carter -- can grasp the ball confidently with one. This gives a control and range of motion not available to a player who must use two hands when holding the ball in the air.

"You saw Michael Jordan do it for years," Perry said. "He'd go up in the air and somebody happens to jump at his level, well, he's able to move the ball away from his body and still get an effective shot off."

Then there's the matter of padding. Perry, who played basketball at Wayne State and has a coaching career that includes stops at Michigan, holds out his own hand as an example of one with good cushioning. And it's true -- on his palm and fingertips, he has a layer of fat that is almost pinchable.

Compare that with a player without that extra padding. This is where the term "hard hands" comes from. A ball whizzing through the air is more likely to bounce off this harder surface, while a thicker hand sucks up some of its momentum and cradles it naturally to a stop.

But hand-eye coordination, an ability to play the game at a deliberate speed, and freeness from anxiety also affect how well a player uses his hands.

Mohammed has average-sized hands for a player of his height. Any problem he does have likely is a mental one. After this season's first exhibition, Mohammed alluded to this, saying he felt his body going "one hundred miles an hour." He attributed it to playing in his first game with a new team and new teammates -- opening-night nerves. And he did settle down as the night went on.

"Sometimes you're thinking about the next thing you're going to do with the ball," Mohammed said. "Your hands aren't soft; they're tense."

That's a fixable problem, coach Flip Saunders said.

"You can definitely work on it," Saunders said. "It's hand-eye coordination, like anything. You can always improve on those things."

And in Mohammed's eyes, it's a problem that has been overstated, anyway. This is, after all, a player with a 1.14 career turnover average. Among the Pistons' four veteran big men, he ranks behind only one, Dale Davis.

"Whenever a big guy misses a pass, they say it's his hands," Mohammed said. "I'm usually in a situation where if there's a tough pass to finish a play, I catch more than I miss, and that's all that really matters."

Contact KRISTA JAHNKE at 313-223-4493 or kjahnke@freepress.com

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/preseasontimechange_061017.html


Final Three Preseason Games Moved Up
Pistons Announce Preseason Game Time Changes

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The Detroit Pistons announced today that game times for the final three preseason home games will be moved to earlier tip-off times.

With the Detroit Tigers scheduled to play World Series games on the same dates, fans will now have the opportunity to view the majority of both games.

“We felt with the tremendous success and excitement surrounding the Tigers, it was only right to change the time so there would be no conflict in our schedules,” said Joe Dumars, President of Basketball Operations.

Following is the updated Pistons 2006 preseason schedule (all times are Eastern Standard Time):
DATE OPPONENT LOCATION TIME TV/RADIO
October 22 Denver The Palace of Auburn Hills 5:00 p.m. MyTV20/WDFN
October 24 Washington The Palace of Auburn Hills 7:00 p.m. FSN/WDFN
October 25 Memphis The Palace of Auburn Hills 7:00 p.m. MyTV20/WDFN

Wednesday, October 18, 2006
The Importance of Preseason (http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/langlois_blog_061018.html)
By Keith Langlois

http://www.nba.com/media/pistons/keith_langlois_162.jpg

Joe Dumars is never one to overstate his case or overplay his hand, and he’s not jumping to any conclusions based on five preseason games. But he likes what he sees so far. He likes it very much.

“Preseason was important to get Nazr (Mohammed) acclimated to playing with our guys,” he said before Wednesday night’s preseason game against Minnesota at Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena. “To get Flip Murray acclimated to being who he is going to be for us – coming off the bench, doing his Vinnie Johnson impression, doing his Corliss Williamson impression, scoring points.

“And, also, to have one of those young guys emerge. That’s what I said to Flip (Saunders) and the coaching staff before we got started – we have to have one of those young guys, Amir (Johnson) or (Jason) Maxiell, emerge. Because they’re both really, really, really talented, but that doesn’t mean that you’re ready to emerge. So let’s see who emerges. And the fact we were looking for it and it happened, I’m very pleased. I talked about us not being a six-man rotation, it’s got to be eight, nine guys.”

It’s been more than that, truth be told. Even young point guard Will Blalock, who’ll make the team but probably won’t dress unless an injury befalls the Pistons, looked very good in his most extended action of the preseason Wednesday.

And after hearing Dumars talk about what he hoped to accomplish this preseason, if you still haven’t figured it out, here’s some stats that act as bread crumbs leading to the answer: Through their first four preseason games, the leaders in field-goal attempts were Flip Murray (47), Carlos Delfino (37), Jason Maxiell (30) and Nazr Mohammed (28, tied with Rasheed Wallace) – all of them either newcomers or bench players expected to take on greater roles.

There was a nice moment before Wednesday’s game in the Van Andel Arena corridor near the Pistons and Timberwolves’ locker rooms when Flip Saunders crossed paths with Mark Madsen, who played for him in Minnesota. “You didn’t run enough plays for him,” said Fred Hoiberg, who has retired to a spot in Minnesota’s front office. “He’s strokin’ it right now.” Saunders looked at Madsen, known far better for his floor burns than his point production, and said, “Must be a new shooting coach.” Madsen laughed while nodding his head in agreement.

Grandmama Maxiell
Who needs Ben Wallace, right? Nazr Mohammed and Jason Maxiell are looking like old-school ’Zo and LJ for the Pistons this preseason. Nazr dropped 20 points on the Wolves last night, while Maxiell had 14. Like Big Ben, Maxiell has been stuck with the “undersized” label for his position as a 6-7 power forward, but he’s a workhorse down low and has been living at the free throw line this preseason (and unlike Ben, he makes his freebies).

At the very least he’s earned minutes in the regular rotation, and as we witnessed last year, it would be smart of Flip Saunders to play his reserves more often in the regular season to preserve Chauncey, Rip, Prince and ’Sheed for the playoffs. And in terms of Nazr, no one expected Mohammed to be any more than a “warm body” to fill space at the five, but he’s looked like a legitimate force so far.

Pistons Waive Rick Rickert and Rob Griffin (http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/rickert_griffin_061019.html)

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars announced today that the club has requested waivers on forward Rick Rickert and guard Rob Griffin.

Rickert played in three preseason games, averaging 1.7 points and 1.3 rebounds in 4.7 minutes per game. Griffin saw limited minutes in three preseason games, grabbing one rebound in six minutes of action.

im getting really hyped for this year. yeah yeah i know its just preseason, but weve seen only good things from everything we wanted good things from except delfino. now keep in mind, im not saying title-hyped... but were gonna have a damn good team this year. i can feel it. "i can feeeeel it" "woo-ha" cant wait to start getting some tv games around here.