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Monday, March 10, 2008
Monday Mailbag … The trade deadline has passed, the draft is still a ways out and Amir Johnson is in the rotation. What’s left for Pistons fans to gnash their teeth about? Lots of love for Walter Herrmann …
Andrew (Farmington Hills): If I recall correctly earlier in the season, Walter Herrmann was called upon to guard Dirk Nowitzki and caused him problems. Would Walter cause Kevin Garnett some of the same problems or is KG too much of an athlete and more of a post-up problem for Walter?
Langlois: The Dallas game was Herrmann’s longest stint of the season, 17 minutes. You’re right – on a night the Pistons were pretty lethargic, trailing by 22 before losing by 16, Herrmann had more success than anyone else guarding Nowitzki. I don’t know that it’s enough of a sample size to draw firm conclusions, but it’s something to keep in your back pocket. It was enough to convince Flip Saunders that Herrmann is probably better suited to playing power forward for the matchup problems he can cause defensively than small forward. Garnett is a little different cover than Nowitzki, but Herrmann’s success guarding the latter at least suggests he could be an option go check the former. The question for the postseason, should the Pistons and Celtics meet in the conference finals, is will Herrmann be on the active list now that Juan Dixon and Theo Ratliff have arrived? Somebody has to sit and only Cheikh Samb is a sure thing. That leaves 14 players for 12 spots.
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Gabriel: Could you please tell me why Herrmann does not get more minutes?
T.J. (Rochester Hills): Why doesn’t Walter Herrmann get a chance? I like Jarvis Hayes but he’s too inconsistent.
Langlois: Who is he going to take them from? As I said above, Flip Saunders thinks Herrmann is best suited to play power forward. He’s the No. 3 player at that position and, with Theo Ratliff on board now, the No. 6 big man for the two inside positions. His clearer path to playing time would be at small forward, but the Pistons have Tayshaun Prince playing 33 minutes a game and Jarvis Hayes at 16. That doesn’t leave any room at that position, either. It really comes down to Hayes or Herrmann behind Prince, and right now the Pistons are more comfortable with Hayes – possibly because they signed him for a specific role as an off-the-bench shooter and have had him here since training camp. Maybe if Hayes and Herrmann had started the season on equal footing, things would be different.
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Tony (Bloomfield Hills): It seems like the Pistons have trouble defending the pick-and-roll but seldom execute it themselves. Why is that?
Langlois: Interesting question, Tony. I’m not sure where the Pistons would rank if you listed NBA teams 1-30 in order of their reliance on the pick-and-roll. It’s not the staple of Detroit’s offense, as it is for many teams, but they’ll use it. They do set a number of screens out high for Chauncey Billups, but the screener – Rasheed Wallace more than others, usually – is more apt to pop out to the 3-point line away from the defense than roll to the basket. That’s often a read at the discretion of the player setting the pick. My guess is that a lot of the time it’s merely Wallace’s feel that he has a bigger advantage by shooting a jump shot with an opening than by rolling into congestion. But that’s just a guess. Remember, part of the pick-and-roll is in the execution, but a bigger part is having the personnel to exploit the advantages it creates.
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Kris (Kalamazoo): Can the active roster for the playoffs be changed from round to round? Do you think Flip Saunders will base his roster on potential backup matchups?
Langlois: Just as in the regular season, the active list for the playoffs can change from game to game. Teams have to submit the active list 90 minutes prior to tipoff. Other than Cheikh Samb, nobody is a lock to be inactive.
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Victor (Oakland): I’ve been wondering why Hamilton shoots the technical free throws when Billups is in the game.
Langlois: He doesn’t always shoot them, Victor. They take turns, though there’s no pattern to it. I asked Billups about it last year. He said it’s basically whoever gets to the line first. But he said in the last minute of a close game, he’s shooting them.
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Mike: Ray Allen got a technical for elbowing Rip. Clearly it’s an offensive foul since Boston had possession. Rip shot the free throw, then Boston got possession back. Shouldn’t that have been a turnover?
Langlois: Hamilton got called for a personal foul before Allen swung his elbow at him and got slapped with the T. So the Pistons shot the technical – Hamilton took it and missed even though he was clearly dazed; that was one Billups should have shot – and then play resumed where it had left off: Boston possession.
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Peter (Round Rock, Texas): Why do the Pistons resort to so many jump shots against the Celtics? They don’t penetrate enough and they let lesser players beat them.
Langlois: I get a chuckle out of the apparent criticism of the Pistons as a “jump-shooting” team. I’ve got news for you: Every team in the NBA is a jump-shooting team. If you can’t shoot jump shots in the NBA, you’re dead. There aren’t many great post-up scorers in the NBA and there aren’t many players skilled enough to consistently break down NBA defenses and get to the rim. If you can’t score that way and you don’t generate much offense out of your defense, then you’d better be a good jump-shooting team. The Celtics are a very good defensive team and their strategy, as taught by assistant coach and defensive guru Tom Thibodeau is to pack the lane and force teams to beat you from outside. If the Pistons play the Celtics in the conference finals, the challenge will be to execute the offense will enough to get good jump shots – open 15-footers for their big men and uncontested 3-pointers for their perimeter players.
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Ryan (High Point, N.C.): Afflalo has been the most consistent perimeter player off the bench this season and now Stuckey and Dixon are playing ahead of him. Any chance Afflalo gets some burn to finish the season or should we just wait until he ends up in Europe or on another team to see him get a chance to really compete?
Langlois: I think there’s a third possibility that’s more likely, Ryan. Afflalo soaks up his first year’s experience and comes back a better player next season. I doubt we’ve heard the last from him this season, but Dixon does give the Pistons a proven NBA scorer and that’s something this bench can use. I think you’re going to see Afflalo come back a much more consistent perimeter shooter. He’s a 20 percent 3-pointer shooter now, though he’s only attempted 39. But almost all young players coming into the NBA are poor 3-point shooters from the NBA line when they arrive. Rasheed Wallace averaged 45 3-point attempts a season for his first five years in the league – compared to 322 over his first three full seasons as a Piston – and shot 29 percent over that span. Until he broke out two years ago as a 46 percent 3-point shooter, Rip Hamilton had been a career 30 percent 3-point shooter over his first six seasons. Extending his range and improving his perimeter consistency will make Afflalo a much better offensive player and allow him to stay on the floor to take full advantage of his defense, his smarts and his tenacity.
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Nima (Windsor): Why does the NBA not allow fans to vote for MVP? It could be online voting and those who vote could be super delegates, just like the democratic process.
Langlois: Yeah, because that’s worked so well. I wouldn’t support that movement, Nima. Some things are best left in the hands of professionals. Open it to fans and it becomes nothing but a popularity contest. Open it to fans and Kobe Bryant and LeBron James go 1-2 or 2-1 every year. I’m not saying Chris Paul deserves the award this year, but he’s definitely in the top five. In a fan vote, I doubt he’d make the top 10.
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Jason (Ypsilanti): Is there a statistic on how many timeouts coaches leave unused? I feel Flip Saunders waits too long to call timeout when Pistons shooters are cold or the opposition is on a big run.
Langlois: Somebody probably keeps track of it, Jason, but I haven’t seen such a statistic. When it comes to calling timeouts, though, I’d be surprised if anyone leaves more timeouts in his pocket than Phil Jackson, who most would contend is one of the top five coaches in the game. My view is that coaches overuse timeouts. Veteran players like to think they can figure things out on their own every once in a while. In all seriousness, stopping play to tell them what they already know can be overdone. As a bit of history here, when Ron Rothstein took over as Pistons coach for Chuck Daly, one of the things that drove his players a little crazy was Rothstein would interrupt practices repeatedly to point out some crazy little nuance that needed correction. That’s not a perfect analogy, I suppose, but it goes to the point that there’s a fine line between coaching and nitpicking.
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James (Macomb): With the new additions of Juan Dixon and Theo Ratliff, how is Flip Saunders going to implement them into the rotation? If you were the head coach of the Pistons, who would be your first guys off the bench?
Langlois: Saunders as much as said this week that the last six weeks of the season are pretty much an open audition for bench minutes. Dixon and Ratliff are going to be given opportunities to prove they should get some playoff minutes. Dixon blends some of the things Lindsey Hunter and Arron Afflalo offer and he could, in fact, jump the line on both of them and become the fourth guard in the pecking order after Billups, Hamilton and Stuckey. The use of Ratliff in a rotation with Maxiell and Johnson off the bench could depend on matchups as much as performance. The neat thing is that every game from here on out is going to matter from that perspective.
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Edgar (Philippines): Do you think starting Theo Ratliff at center and having McDyess coming off the bench would make us stronger?
Langlois: No. Ratliff was not brought in to take McDyess’ spot. He was brought in to give the Pistons greater depth and flexibility in the front court. The concern wasn’t so much the inexperience of Maxiell and Johnson so much as Maxiell being a tad undersized against certain players and Johnson lacking a little bulk and strength in certain matchups.
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K.C. (Greencastle, Ind.): I noticed the Pistons had nine fouls to two for Boston in the fourth quarter. Was that an indication of frustration by the Pistons or something else?
Langlois: I don’t think they were fouling out of frustration. The frustration came from being in the penalty with nine minutes left in the game and Boston not picking up a foul until a few minutes were left. There were a few fouls on McDyess and Wallace that were borderline and it wasn’t a great night for the officials, but I don’t think officiating dictated the outcome.
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Jermain (Detroit): It seems to me that Tayshaun is not as aggressive as he should be on the offensive end of the court when the Pistons are playing All-Star small forwards. Is it a concern for the coaching staff or are they satisfied with him just being a defensive role player?
Langlois: You didn’t say so, but I’m going to assume you’re talking about the Boston game and the Prince-Pierce matchup. Prince didn’t have many opportunities offensively, but his matchup with Pierce was basically a wash. Yeah, Pierce outscored him 15-7, but Pierce is still Boston’s No. 1 option if you go by field-goal attempts and is no worse than co-equals with Garnett and Allen. Prince doesn’t have the same prominence within Detroit’s offense. But he did have 10 points and five assists to go with seven points in that game and he did hold Pierce 5.5 points under his average. Not bad, considering he’d played the whole second half and 39 minutes the night before and got whip-sawed by the snowstorm that delayed the Pistons’ arrival into Boston until nearly dawn.
