Ben Wallace's future in Detroit

[Kstat]

Ben's offensive problems were magnified by Sheed going in the tank.

If we have a consistent offensive threat opposite Ben, then I dont think Ben is that much of an issue.

[Anthony]

IMO, his best year was LB's first year here when he made an effort to involve Ben in the offense.

Nobody is saying to give ben the ball on every play. But you have to keep the other guy honest. The more he is involved on the offense, the more he shoots, the more he sees the ball go in, the more confident he gets on the line, and he can hit 50%

That'll only fuel his defense.
Point is, you cant play 4 on 5, no matter how "bad" ben might be offensively. Hell, run that little pick and roll, with him and RIP all night long. Ally-oups galore!

And BTW, Ben Wallace is a very underrated passer. He can pass the ball.

He was averaging 8 shots a game under LB, I think it was. And those were two great years we had. This guy works so hard on defense, and when he creates a turnover, or blocks a shot or grabs a big rebound, its just like saying "Thanks for all the hard work, now get the fuck out of the way"

Bull shit. You have to include ben in the offense.

[Kstat]

Can't involve a %20 shooter in anything.

Ben's FT dropoff is the main reason nobody gave him the ball. They knew he'd be hacked immidiately and there was an %80 chance there would be no points out of it.

%50 is one thing, but that was beyond pathetic.

[Anthony]

Funny, Under Larry Brown he shot 42% and 45%
With plays consistenly called for him

OH, and he shot 50% from the line in LB's frist year here. Although I think that has more to do with Woodson working with Ben.

[Uncle Mxy]

Ben's FT% tends to dip over the course of a season. For the past four seasons, his November FT% was right around 50%.

[Uncle Mxy]

Funny, Under Larry Brown he shot 42% and 45%
With plays consistenly called for him

Here's the logic that Flip doesn't seem to understand.

Contrary to what Ben may say, no you don't really give Ben the ball just to make him feel good, get him into a rhythm. Maybe his ben-wa balls do get all fired up once in a great while, but he's been a DPOY under three different coaches, only one of which really used him on offense. Maybe just maybe he can do that "defense" thing even without being an offensive threat.

So, why do you do it? It's simply so the other team knows that he will take and make a shot if unattended so they at least need to keep a man on him. He's not very good offensively with a man on him... 42-45% from paint range sucks, and it'll never be good as long as it's so worthwhile for the defender to disrupt his shot. But it makes it harder for anyone to double-team us.

Why does that matter? Because we don't have -anyone- on our team who can score through a double well, who 'creates'. The closest we have to that is Chauncey, and he's not a very strong finisher to the hoop if he doesn't draw that foul. Our players have to find the open man. Sometimes the open man is gonna be Ben, and if he's open, Ben needs to score.

OH, and he shot 50% from the line in LB's frist year here. Although I think that has more to do with Woodson working with Ben.

49%, and that's only during the regular season, not counting his playoff FTs which moves his FT shooting down a couple %. Ben had started out shooting >50% through November/December, but slid down to 43% come playoff time that year. Similar thing happened this year. <sigh>

[Glenn]

More on Ben, but the interesting stuff is about Delfino.

http://www.mlive.com/sports/statewid...360.xml&coll=1

Wallace wants to return to Pistons, but who knows?

Monday, June 05, 2006
By A. Sherrod Blakely

AUBURN HILLS -- Moments before departing the Detroit Pistons practice facility this weekend for the official start of his offseason, Ben Wallace was asked about possible changes the Pistons may make in order to get back to the NBA Finals.

"I'm a free agent," Wallace said with a chuckle. "I might be one of those changes."

For many, the idea of Wallace suiting up for another NBA team is hard to imagine.

However, as one of the most attractive free agents this summer, no one -- not even Wallace -- knows how things will turn out.

He has repeatedly stated that he wants to re-sign with the Pistons. The Pistons have made it clear that the feeling is mutual.

However, there are factors to be considered that, in the end, hold more weight than the personal sentiments of those involved.

Knowing this will be his richest contract ever, Wallace naturally wants to get as much money as he can. That's one of the reasons he hired Arn Tellem, one of the most powerful agents in the game.

Wallace's teammates have done everything they can to convince him that Detroit is where he needs to be. Wallace has often talked about how the Pistons' organization and the fans embraced him from the moment he arrived in town in 2000.

"My thing has always been about being secure where you're at, having an opportunity to start a family and make sure that (you're not) relocating time after time," said Wallace, whose wife, Chanda, is expecting their second child in a few weeks. "It's always been about being secure."

Financial security won't be an issue for Wallace after he signs his next contract, which should provide a significant bump in pay from the $7.5 million he received for the 2005-2006 season.

The Pistons made sure they would be in position to offer Wallace a big contract when they traded Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo to Orlando for a future draft pick and Kelvin Cato, whose $8 million contract expires at the end of the month.

Detroit could conceivably offer Wallace a maximum contract that would start at more than $17 million per season. However, considering he'll be 32 when training camp starts and that he had a less-than-stellar playoffs, he'll likely receive an offer from the Pistons for four years that would start at about $12 million per season.

Maurice Evans, who was pursued by several teams as a free agent last summer before signing with the Pistons, reiterated to Wallace how important the team feels he is to the franchise's future success.

However, Evans was quick to add that if there was a significant gap between what the Pistons were offering him compared to another team, he would understand if Wallace took the money and left Detroit.

"Now that his payday is here, he's going to have to do what's in the best interest of Ben Wallace," Evans said. "I'm sure he'll do that. Hopefully, the Pistons will coincide with his best interest."

After appearing in just 30 games as a rookie during the 2004-05 season because of a knee injury, Carlos Delfino was optimistic that he would play more this season.

That didn't happen.

While he appeared in more games (68), the 15.3 minutes per game he averaged under ex-Pistons coach Larry Brown dropped to 10.6 per game under coach Flip Saunders this season.

"I don't want another season like that," said Delfino, who will play for Argentina's National Team this summer.

However, he said he has not talked to the Pistons about trading him.

"I want to be here. I expect to be here," Delfino said. "I want to play here."

Antonio McDyess will see a hand specialist, who will examine the left hand injury he sustained in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against Miami.

[Glenn]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...127/SPORTS0102

Humbled Pistons must find selves

By Bob Wojnowski

You don't tear this thing apart. No way. You don't ignore all the good the Pistons accomplished for four seasons because it went bad for two weeks.

But in the aftermath of a strange, stunning collapse, the franchise, the players and the coach need to do an honest reassessment. Perhaps this was the humbling they needed, to deflate egos, to regain that whatever-it-takes mentality.

The Pistons thought they had it all figured out, that shared responsibility reduced individual accountability. Then they got in trouble against Cleveland, lost their way against Miami and players scrambled for someone to blame.

This team's legacy of selfless achievement has been tarnished, but it can be refurbished with smart retooling. That makes this summer a tricky one for team president Joe Dumars. He built a championship foundation on Ben Wallace, who's now a pending free agent, and anything the Pistons do from here will be predicated on what they do with Wallace.

Wallace was a disappointment in the playoffs, his brooding a concern, his role suddenly ill-defined. But Dumars has to be careful. Letting Wallace leave would send the Pistons in a different direction, an offensive direction, which admittedly is the way the NBA is headed.

Depend on defense
But didn't we see in the postseason, even with Flip Saunders' ramped-up offense, that the Pistons still hit incomprehensible scoring lapses? No matter what they do, they aren't going to have a superstar such as LeBron James, or Dwyane Wade, or Dirk Nowitzki, which is why they can't stray too far from their defensive principles.

If they can't find (or create) dependable scoring stars, they have to try to keep Wallace, although not at any cost, not for a maximum contract. The Face of the Franchise no longer is untouchable, but I'd keep him because replacing him would be more difficult than you realize. I'd keep him because if you let him go, you are, in some ways, blowing up your identity.

That said, if Wallace is so unhappy in Saunders' offense, Dumars cannot placate him. Placating days should be over for this group, which grew weary of the past two coaches, leading to the arrival of Saunders' lighter touch. This is what can happen when players feel they're in control. They assume they can coach themselves.

That doesn't make them suddenly incorrigible. Not at all. This is still an elite, unique team, classy for the most part, capable of winning 50-55 regular-season games by memory.

It does make them human. They had such a spectacular regular season, and such a memorable four-year run, they arrogantly assumed nothing could derail them. Now we know otherwise, and now we hunt for reasons. Three stand out:

• MVP candidate Chauncey Billups struggled horribly, his cool control suddenly shaken, his shooting touch gone. To his credit, he wouldn't make excuses, but he sure looked worn out. You hope he was, because fatigue is fixable.

• Rasheed Wallace revealed how valuable he is, and how difficult it is to count on him. The Pistons started falling apart precisely when Wallace sprained his right ankle in Game 4 at Cleveland, after another of his guarantees. He's the team's best low-post scorer, but disdains the role. He's the emotional turbine, but too often gets out of control. He has to be better.

• For all the justifiable regular-season acclaim, Saunders is judged on the playoffs, rendering his first season a disappointment. His leadership skills were called into question and his track record became an issue. He never settled on a bench rotation, which sapped the subs' confidence and the starters' energy.

Tricky transition
Saunders was in a difficult position, unable to completely gain the respect of a team that had won without him. He must take firmer control now that the players have been humbled, and presumably will be hungry.

We suspected all along this would be a tough transition. Saunders understood the pressure replacing Larry Brown, who guided the team to a title and two straight Finals appearances.

Many around here, starting with the owner, had suggested Brown got too much credit for the Pistons' success. Hmm. Now we see he probably didn't get enough. After witnessing Brown's struggles in New York, it sure appears -- as some of us loudly harped -- the team and the old coach needed each other more than most were willing to admit. The theory this season was the Pistons would be driven by that Game 7 loss to San Antonio, and doubly driven by the need to prove their success wasn't tied tightly to Brown.

Instead, cracks appeared. Dumars can fix cracks, as long as they don't spread. Somehow, the Pistons evolved into a jump-shooting, three-point-heaving team. Their balance was terrific during the regular season, when they won a franchise-record 64 games, but became exploitable in the playoffs, when defenses dared the Pistons to beat them inside. Ultimately, they were defeated badly inside -- inside the paint, inside their own heads. If not dissension issues, there were chemistry issues, trust issues. This can't be treated flippantly, pun intended.

It's not all on Flip because that's a cop-out, and this team is too good and experienced to seek cop-outs.

"I don't think it's fair to point that finger at one person," Billups said. "There are some things in hindsight Flip could've done better, and a lot of things I know I could've done better. You can say that about every single player. As long as we bring back the same guys, I'm not concerned at all."

Was Rasheed's ankle injury huge? Yep, it was. Can everything be blamed on an inexplicable shooting slump? Nope, it can't.

I don't buy that the entire team simply went into a two-week drought. The truth is, players didn't work harder for better shots, or more defensive stops. The team that toiled brilliantly and relentlessly for years acted as if it had grown out of that phase, ready for the next one.

It's a tough lesson, but ultimately a good one. To get where you need to go, there's nothing wrong with exploring new paths. Just don't ever forget where, or how, you started.

You can reach Bob Wojnowski at bob.wojnowski@detnews.com

[Glenn]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...127/SPORTS0102

Re-signing Wallace is a must if Pistons want another title

Ben Wallace is worth it.

If the Pistons offer Wallace, their unrestricted free-agent center, what he deserves, there should be no reason a deal can't be reached.

Wallace, who will be 32 next season, should command a contract between $10 million and $12 million a year for four years.

If another team decides to be fiscally irresponsible -- by offering Wallace a max contract in excess of $15 million a season -- all bets are off. The Pistons, one of the best-run franchises in the NBA, have never simply thrown money around, so you can't expect a major bidding war.

"Ben Wallace is a high priority," Pistons president Joe Dumars said. "We want to re-sign him. He's an unrestricted free agent, though.

"At the end of the day, it's going to be Ben's decision."

Good with the bad
All signs are Wallace wants to be here. That's a good start. It's not enough, however.

The Pistons must come in with an outstanding offer with no games. The last thing they want to do is disrespect Wallace with a lowball offer.

Pistons officials have too much respect for Wallace to pull a scam like that.

Those who believe the Pistons shouldn't re-sign Wallace because he missed free throws in the disappointing postseason are overreacting.

Sure, it was terrible. Big Ben will be the first to tell you that. But Wallace always has been a great defender and a terrible free-throw shooter. In order to get one part of his game, you have to take the other.

Every player has a weakness he wishes he could correct. The same goes for Wallace taking his coaches to task publicly. You'd rather that be kept in-house, but it doesn't mean a player is a bad guy because he disagrees with his boss.

Addition, not subtraction
Let's not forget, Wallace has been named defensive player of the year four out of the last five seasons. That's nothing to pooh-pooh, especially when you know defense wins championships.

After all, isn't that what this is all about? It's about giving the Pistons a shot at another title.

Breaking up the starting five wouldn't give you the best chance to win again.

Adding players is the key.

Take a look around the East. The Pistons will again be considered one of the teams to beat.

Miami's squad is older. Nobody knows how long Shaquille O'Neal's knees will hold up.

Are LeBron James and the Cavaliers scary? Not yet. They still have to acquire more talent if they want to be in the hunt.

The windows of opportunity for the Nets and Pacers probably have closed.

That leaves the Pistons front and center.

They can win again.

It's not over.

Just ask the Spurs. They've never won back-to-back titles. But they have won three championships in seven years.

They didn't scrap their core because they lost. They simply added new pieces to go with what they had and what had worked.

Without question, another championship is obtainable.

That's why keeping Wallace is a no-brainer.

He's worth the loot.

You can reach Rob Parker at rob.parker@detnews.com.

[Gecko]

Does anyone in the history of mankind say and write the word "pooh-pooh" more than Parker? Maybe his editor lacks a thesaurus.

So here's what's killin me on Parker. Does the fact that Parker hasn't written a single story on any sort of locker room strife mean that there isn't any or is it that Dumars is keeping him out of the loop? I mean who would know better than Parker, he's damn near in Dumars suite during most games.