This guy deserves a little love.

How nice of an addition has he been?

Great player, great citizen, great attitude.

A guy that has been through all of the injuries that he has been and the loss of production due to those injuries could very well be bitter and selfish, not Dice.

We're lucky to have him.

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/116061360647060.xml&coll=1


McDyess in line for bigger role on Pistons

Thursday, October 12, 2006
By A. Sherrod Blakely

AUBURN HILLS -- When Antonio McDyess arrived in Detroit two years ago, teammates and coaches often referred to him as a sixth starter.

Well, it looks like he'll finally get the kind of minutes to back that up.

Of the handful of issues left to be ironed out by Detroit during the preseason, figuring out McDyess' role isn't one of them.

Ben Wallace's departure to Chicago via free agency this summer, coupled with McDyess being healthy enough to play in a career-high 82 regular season games last season, has the 32-year-old forward and Pistons head coach Flip Saunders confident that the injuries which have limited his playing time in Detroit won't be an issue anymore.

The former All-Star (2001) and Olympic gold medalist (2000) was one of the NBA's dominant power forwards before a series of knee injuries that began during the '01-'02 season. Prior to that, he averaged 33.5 minutes per game. In the four seasons since then, including his missing the '02-'03 season with New York due to a knee injury, McDyess' playing time dropped by more than 10 minutes per game, to 22.3.

However, that's expected to change this season.

"We've always looked at him as a sixth starter, but I do believe his role will be greater this year," Saunders said.

Especially in the fourth quarter, which McDyess acknowledges has been difficult for him to sit and watch instead of being on the floor.

"I'm just like everybody else on this team ... I want to be out there," McDyess said. "But I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to help us win games. If that means sitting for most or all of the fourth quarter, fine, I'll do that. If it means playing in the fourth quarter, I don't have a problem with that either."

And while the thought of more minutes might have made McDyess cringe a couple years ago, he's excited about the possibility of having an expanded role.

"I'm looking forward to this season," McDyess said. "If it calls for me to be on the floor in crunch time and get more minutes, I'm willing to take that challenge."

http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20050423/pistons_65182.jpg

http://cdn.news.aol.com/aolnews_photos/03/00/20060412204109990007

http://www3.turkishpress.com/i-s/SGE.GDM66.050406075411.photo00.quicklook.default-245x169.jpg

http://members.aol.com/kingkyle1/DenverNuggets/mcdyess.jpg

i love Dice!

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/8459/tdicelovesm6.jpg

i love Dice!

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/8459/tdicelovesm6.jpg

http://www.mike-myers.net/dieter5.jpg

i've said for a long time that he's our best all around big man- from his defense, to his rebounding, to his post play (which is HUGE) to his nice baseline jumper.

back in the finals against the spurs he was our best big man, easily IMO.

had we played him more, we might have won.

i've got nothing but love for dice.

ive always loved dice. luckiest addition in the last couple years.

Now if only he could get that kinda love from the refs...

Not a lot of appreciation for Dice here.

This is sad.

I think your pic of Dieter is scaring people off.

"Vould you like to touch Dice's monkey?"

He's been awesome for us. Not a lot of teams have quality bigs like Dice on their bench and it's an advantage we have to make better use of.

I'm really looking forward to seeing him get some more minutes (closer to 30 than 20). If he's playing more than 30 minutes I'm gonna worry, though

"Is 58% FG shooting through the month of February enough to get some love, guys??"

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1960/fulljgetty71797611ae013zh3.jpg

I just wish Dyess or Max was a couple inches taller so we could find more minutes for Max. I like what both of them bring off the bench.

18 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal in 35 minutes last night as a starter vs. the Cavs.

Appreciated.


http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/ae/fullj.getty-71796477ae013_pistons_cavs_3_59_26_pm.jpg

Is there a better 6th man candidate?

ben gordon would have been, and i think ginobli counts this year, so thats 2. dyess is def a top 5 reserve though, which is pretty crazy when most consider us to be the top 5 also (or is that phx now?).

dyess has been an unbelievable pick up. not to the scale of chauncy, but i'd say it was joe's last brilliant move (webber was a no brainer).

McDyess has been awesome and has been outplaying Sheed more and more often. I almost prefer Dice starting with Sheed coming off of the bench.

If Dice didn't already have a kick ass nickname, "Leather" would be pretty nice.