http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2007/01/18/pb_dunleavy0118.jpg http://coop.jsc.nasa.gov/photo/2005/springsocial/jermaine_oneal.jpg
http://www.nba.com/media/espanol/larry_bird_254.jpg
vs
http://www.covers.com/images/2007/180x180/webber_poster070116a.jpg
aka CWebb
http://www.funnycoolstuff.com/images/spiderman3-pictures.jpg
sheed's shoes
http://www.thaisecondhand.com/view/productpic/p4312965n1.jpg
rip
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40259000/jpg/_40259321_hamilton_getty203.jpg
billups
http://www.photofile.com/Photos/Albums/2004NBAChampionship/Images/Chauncey%20BillupsWTrophies01.jpg
Blossoming© Tay
http://images.usatoday.com/sports/_photos/2006/05/21/prince.jpg
And The guy who'd kick Bird's ass in a street fight.
http://sports.espn.go.com/media/nba/2003/0527/photo/a_dumars_i.jpg

Are we ever going to have a blowout again. To hell with all these close games.


Thanks for the OGT. Would've missed this one.

I still hate these fucks.

Must be the coach, the fans, and the uniform, because the players are all gone.

Would Sheed please STFU!!!!!!!! He now has 14 techs. He had 17 all of last season. He does seem to play well when he's pissed but he needs to go to anger management or something. It was just a foul....GET OVER IT!!!

good start so far, well Sheeds gonna be out soon, more time for Max :)

For those who just saw Sheed go to the bucket....Now you know why he doesn't.

For those who just saw Sheed go to the bucket....Now you know why he doesn't.

elaborate for those of us yelling at stupid neighbors driving through our lawn with an ATV.

It looked it was the first time that he went to the hole...in his life.

But Sheed IS the the Pistons, if it wasn't for him, we might as well rebuild.

Today is fun with neighbors day?

circular logic. He looked so awkward doing it because he doesn't do it often enough. This isn't Darko we're talking about, we know and have seen that Sheed is a good inside player.

A good inside game makes it so your fates aren't dependant on the almighty 45% (based on the fact that a 45% shooting night is considered good).

Being a bunch of jump shooters can still work if you are a great defensive team and stop them running up the score thus giving yourself more chances to make up those missed jump shots, but we're not that either. We're very soft and pussy-ish on defense.
It can also work out ok if you're a *great* rebounding team, more possessions to you to make up the missed jumpers and less to them to capitalized on their missed jumpers.

edit: and look, they regained control on the back of 'Sheed just raping single coverage close to the basket.

Yeah, what Sheed did in the 3rd quarter was just... YEAH!

Now if he can figure out how to do that on players not named Troy Murphy...

Kind of scary that it got so close towards the end, but it was nice to see the guys pull away after that. Im by no means a FlipS fan, but Sheed doing what he did in the third was a Flip adjustment. A lot of last year and this year Ive noticed our third quarter score seems to be greater than our opponents, and that is coaching. I noticed another thing too... when JMax and Dice were in together, Dice was a monster. Maybe since, as unlikely as it is, if Dice were to lose minutes it would be to JMax so that motivates him more. Maybe we should just use CWebb and Sheed, or Dice and JMax. Switch two for two unless there is foul trouble or whatever.

Greg Anthony before halftime on JMax: "Those were the two most impressive missed dunks Ive ever seen", or something close to that. I got a pretty good laugh out of that. Then he went on about how JO should think twice before trying to block him because hes gonna get hurt one of these times. In fairness to JMax he got fouled, so its not like he just whiffed.

The best combo was JMax and DD. Just when they started becoming the goon squad, you never saw 'em again.

The best combo was JMax and DD. Just when they started becoming the goon squad, you never saw 'em again.

Most definitely. Max and Dale were phenomenal with their activeness on the boards.

DD and JMax were pretty mean together, I didnt even think of that. My train of thought was just following how Dice was crashing the boards, and how I only saw that so predominantly when he was in the game with JMax.

We are burning Rip too many minutes a night.

I agree Bubbles, but just to make a point:

Rip is 17th in the NBA at 37.9 MPG
Tayshaun is 20th at 37.8 MPG

Rip is the ultimate conditioner, so we should be more concerned about Tay than Rip since there is only a 6 second per game differential between them. Both of them should be taken back a bit though. Ive noticed in playing vid games they are the two hardest guys to sub for, I usually split their backup time between Delfino. After Del it gets a little weird if you are trying to keep a more standard lineup and dont like Murray.

Those stats are per: http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/stats and click Minutes Per Game towards the bottom. (first google result)

Rip can play 45 minutes per night. I don't worry about him wearing down.

Tay on the other hand, is a little different.

However, the fact Tay's workload has been decreased severely with webber on the floor means he doesn't have to expend as much energy as he used to.

Tay has essentially become bruce bowen now. Plays great D, score a little here and there, and hit the occasional open three. But Tay is now the 5th offensive option on the floor.

Rip can play 45 minutes per night. I don't worry about him wearing down.

Tay on the other hand, is a little different.

However, the fact Tay's workload has been decreased severely with webber on the floor means he doesn't have to expend as much energy as he used to.

Tay has essentially become bruce bowen now. Plays great D, score a little here and there, and hit the occasional open three. But Tay is now the 5th offensive option on the floor.

Rip got worn down last year you could see it in the playoffs.

Last year was a little different, because Rip was injured. Where you could see Rip wear down best was in 2005.

Yeah, the problem was that Delfino wasn't scoring last night. He was playing pretty good D though (he got burned once by Granger, but that is it). He kept rotating to RIP's man because RIP wasn't guarding his man for some reason and Delfino kept having to cover for him. RIP was just floating on D out there when they posted up JO.

Yeah, I noticed Rip floating as well, giving the Pacers multiple good looks at the basket. Delfino would be out of position an inch and Rip would come over and help when Delfino clearly could recover. We still won though.

Rip got worn down last year you could see it in the playoffs.

That's a crock of shit. Rip was getting trapped all over the floor by Miami and Cleveland, who doubled off of ben wallace on every single play. People are just using fatigue as an excuse.

Prince and chauncey looked visibly worn down, but I've never seen rip look tired since he became a piston.

Yeah, RIP looked fine last year I think. Prince was definately tired last year. I don't think endurance is a factor with RIP. You just risk injury by playing him a ton.

Rip clearly wore down in 2005. He was a half-step slow, his shot form was off, he was taking more minutes to score the same points, all sorts of little things. This was especially apparenty in the games after LB put him more on Wade instead of Tay. Rip's worked on his conditioning, notably his legs and base, since then, but I still think he'd be better off playing less minutes and guaranteeing just a hair more spring in his step in the playoffs. Remember, he averaged 20 ppg in just 32 mpg when he first got here, on a slower-paced offense where he was seeing more doubles because we had both Ben -and- Curry starting.

I don't think it was his conditioning as much as it was his muscle mass.

Don't forget, we put rip on iverson for an entire 6-game playoff series and rip didn't miss a step. Theyre isnt a guy in the NBA that can tire him out simply by running him all over the floor.

Rip wasn't getting tired, he was getting beat up. Guys were hitting him hard and it was slowing him down.

Since 2005, Rip's worked on getting bigger and stronger, and it's showing. He's on pace to shoot 540+ FTs this year, and he only shot around 300 of them last year.

He's on pace to shoot 540+ FTs this year, and he only shot around 300 of them last year.

Which actually makes the argument that he'll need more rest by the end of this season.

He's taking a significantly increased amount of physical abuse this year.

Blakely


McDyess update ...
For those of you who saw last night's game, I'm sure you saw the big spill McDyess took when he landed with a major thud, on his right elbow. It was heavily wrapped today at practice, but team officials said he'll play tomorrow.

I'd asusme that's more of a precaution than anything. It's probably just a bad bruise.

Which actually makes the argument that he'll need more rest by the end of this season.

He's taking a significantly increased amount of physical abuse this year.

IMO, the fact he's inviting more contact means he can absorb more contact.

Got to see this game from the 100 level suites (a perk of my buddy's wife's job). I knew Sheed didn't go 7-8 or anything but I was surprised to see 6-16. It was hilarious watching him back down Murphy and watching everyone back down "snowflake" Dunleavy. O'neal had a huge game but everytime he missed a fadeaway we were yelling "That's why you're a center!"

sheed went 5-6 on murphy and 1-10 against Oneal. That's why it made it look like less of a total domination.

I'd like to see Tay and RIP rested, but how? Unless we bring in Mo pete or someone, there isn't much of a chance to rest them. You could ride Delfino on a night he's shooting well, but that isn't most nights. Murray sucks, Amir is too raw. We can't really rest them at this point barring any deal.

I'd like to see Tay and RIP rested, but how? Unless we bring in Mo pete or someone, there isn't much of a chance to rest them. You could ride Delfino on a night he's shooting well, but that isn't most nights. Murray sucks, Amir is too raw. We can't really rest them at this point barring any deal.
When Delfino isn't hitting his shots, he's still doing all the little things. I'd be fine with him getting an extra 4-5 minutes a night split between Rip and Tay resting.

Delfino is a great utility player. He does a lot of little things, but 3/4 of the time he's not a major scoring threat, and when he isn't our perimeter game really suffers.

Put another permieter shooter out there, and delfino would be nearly perfect.

He is playing good D, but who scores? Look at the lulls we went into yesterday. Dyess is producing, but who else off the bench? hunter doesn't score, DD doesn't, Max doesn't get any post touches. usually RIP is still in there, but without C-Webb and Sheed setting screens he isn't as effective. They need to get a little more creative with their bench scoring. Maybe run some pick and rolls with Delfino and Dyess or something. Delfino can slash and Dyess can hit the mid range shot. i wonder why they just let Delfino stand there on the wing instead of using him more like a PG in the half court. hunter is more of a spot up shooter anyway (like a SG) on offense. Plus Delfino comes in for Tay and has a SF on him then. Why not run pick and rolls where the slow footed SF's can't guard it? Maybe the problem is bad play calling with our bench. It seems like it turns into RIP having to create off the dribble.

I said this somewhere else, but JJ Reddick, a guy who does nothing but run around and come off screens, would be an excellent fit as a 4th wingman.

Not saying he's attainable, but we could use a guy like that off the bench. Someone that can flat-out shoot the ball and keep teams from collapsing on maxiell and Delfino inside.

delk? the ying and the yang?

Delk I think is a little too short to be a SG for us. He also didn't shoot well consistently.

I thought Delk was great for us.

Much better than expected, for sure.

Yeah, but that was as a point guard.

RIP having to create off the dribble.
God help us when that happens for 4 straight minutes.

I said this somewhere else, but JJ Reddick, a guy who does nothing but run around and come off screens, would be an excellent fit as a 4th wingman.

Not saying he's attainable, but we could use a guy like that off the bench. Someone that can flat-out shoot the ball and keep teams from collapsing on maxiell and Delfino inside.

Don't know either, but he isn't really being used right now. Perhaps when Hill leaves they will use him a lot though.

Fuck JJ Redick, bring back Jon Barry.