Pistons sign Flip Murray (old thread)

Why this may not be as bad as it looks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the wrath of diddy

It's disappointmentade. Everyone was hoping that we'd re-sign Ben and find a way to get Bonzi. Instead we have Nazr and Flip. Can't blame people for being underwhelmed.

I couldn't agree more. Frankly, Flip Murray is an excellent signing for what we are paying him. He held his own quite well in the playoffs against the Pistons last season when he replaced Hughes.

Sure, his scorring wasn't that great but let's not forget who Cleveland's offence was running through. It's not as though the offence was geared for him.

Defensively he looked serviceable. I think he was guarding Chauncey in the game I watched and when he did Chauncey pretty much did a dissapearing act. I'm not going to say that this was all due to Flip Murray but he did a good enough job.

I know this may produce snickers but I like what Joe is doing here. It looks like he is attempting to reproduce the depth that helped this team win the first championship.

Some people may think other wise but I don't think playing the final game in San Antonio had as much to do with the Pistons not repeating as some claim. It had more to do with loosing Corliss Williamson and Mehmet Okur or at least the production off of the bench that they provided. Depth has been a consistant element in the Pistons success for the previous four years. The last two years everyone has bought into the ideal that the Pistons starting 5 were the best in basketball which may be true but when you ride the same guys over a four year span and an 82 game schedule they are bound to run out of gas.

Now Joe is obtaining serviceable vets and indicating the need to have eight guys capable of comming into the game and producing. This is a good strategy.

In regards to whether or not Flip will work or not has a lot to do with Flip Saunders. How will he use him etc. Will he play Murray at the expence of younger players like he did last year etc?

We had 8+ last year.

Wallace
Wallace
Prince
Hamilton
Billups

McDyess
Davis
Evans
Delfino
Delk
Hunter

Quote:

Originally Posted by themicrowave

We had 8+ last year.

Wallace
Wallace
Prince
Hamilton
Billups

McDyess
Davis
Evans
Delfino
Delk
Hunter

Keyword here is PRODUCING. The starting 5 and McDyess were certainly producers, while the remaining four produced in spurts. We never knew who we could count on to do it on a given night. Corliss and Memo were almost always good for decent points and boards in limited minutes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by themicrowave

We had 8+ last year.

Wallace
Wallace
Prince
Hamilton
Billups

McDyess
Davis
Evans
Delfino
Delk
Hunter

Oops, duplicate post. Feel free to delete this one, Mods.

Quote:

Originally Posted by themicrowave

We had 8+ last year.

Wallace
Wallace
Prince
Hamilton
Billups

McDyess
Davis
Evans
Delfino
Delk
Hunter

But things are different from last year. Last year the Pistons thought they lost the championship because they didn't have home court advantage. So we rode the starting five the whole year. The bench was only used to give the starting unit a breather. As a result instead of losing in the last game of the Championship series we end up losing in the ECF. This year Joe has been quoted as saying that he is more interested in finding depth for this team. I interpret this as meaning that he wants to use the bench as a weapon again like it was used when they had Barry, Okur, and Williamson.

One other thing I forgot to mention is the variety of skill sets on the championship team. Mehmet Okur was a seven footer that could nail the three while Corliss scored points in the paint. Okurs length required a big to defend against him and thereby spread the defence while Corliss could occupy the paint. I won't even spend time explaining the different things that Lindsey Hunter and Mike James brought to the table. Now compare that to last years bench. Where are the points in the paint? Every one of those backup players is a jump shooter except for Delfino. There's no variety and it's easy to defend against.

Now Joe has another slasher in Murray (if what I'm told is true) and he's got a different game than Chauncey. Nazr is no Ben Wallace defensively but last year Ben was rareley Ben due to the transition game that the Pistons rely more on now.

The rules for the game have changed. The league is looking to open it up more. The half court game that Ben relied on has been replaced by a full court up tempo system. I'm not predicting that he will be an all star but Nazr should be serviceable in this new system. So, I don't think we are going to miss Ben as much as some are expecting (until we play the Bulls that is).

It looks like Joe sees things in the same way and therefore doesn't see a need to blow the team up. The Pistons are still in pretty good shape. Even without Wallace there are still five guys who have been All Stars. So Joe is working on the bench.

Great posts swarm, welcome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the wrath of diddy

Joe's philosophy worked well when all those players were underpaid. As soon as you have to pay those guys what the market demands it's falls apart thanks you know who.

There is truth to this, no matter how Kstat spins it.

You get Chauncey, Rip, Tay, AND Ben for peanuts?

The only guy who ever got even close to 1/4 what he was worth during our championship run was Sheed.

Joe D. kinda had it like Ken Holland for a while.

He had a ton of great talent, with not a care in the world about the salary cap.

With Holland, his luster wore off once the salary cap was instituted and he couldn't just buy players with no regard to price.

With Joe, his luster wore off as soon as his starting five stopped being the best bargains in the NBA, and he had to figure out a way to pay his best players more than half of what they are actually worth on the open market.

That's bullshit.

Joe has NEVER lowballed a starter. He's paid them what they were worth, no more no less.

Again I'll ask this question: do you think Joe Dumars should be fired, and what current GM would you rather have?

I ask becasue I want to know just how deep this stupidity goes.

I love how we re-signed Sheed,Rip AND Tayshaun during this run, but god forbid ONE of our players runs smewhere else for way more than he was worth, now all of a sudden its like we never re-signed anybody and we're the worst run organization of all time.

Flip Murray at that price is a bargain. Is he the Answer? Of course not.

As currently constructed we do have a decent 10-man rotation:

Nazr/Sheed
Sheed/Dice/Maxiell
Prince/Delfino
Rip/Flip/Delfino
Billups/Hunter

Throw in Davis at C and things don't look so bad.

At the very least it should be interesting to see who plays behind Tay and who gets the majority of minutes behind Billups.

And, Joe has lined up a few assets if he needs to make a trade.

Delfino, Dice, Acker, Amir, Blalock and Flip all have very short contracts and we have 2 first round picks in the 2007 Draft. Throw in Davis and his $3.5mil expiring deal and it is possible for us to make a serious trade.

I doubt it happens, but Joe does have that option.

Obviously I would have approached the off-season differently but looking at our team I can't honestly say my way would give us a much better roster.

If you take out Davis and Flip, but add Banks are we better?

Significantly better?

Who knows?

(and yes, it was possible to add Nazr, Banks and bring back Hunter)