20-31. That's the Pistons record in 2009. While it's easy to blame the coach, I watch enough basketball to know when a team is undisciplined. Yes, Curry seems to use his timeouts at the correct time, but I'm not exactly sure what information he imparts. Against the Bulls tonight, with the score tied, my guess is that Curry's play was for Stuckey to dribble around a bit and then dish to Rasheed for a double-pump 3pt contested shot.
Many of the current Pistons are former all-stars, but it's painfully obvious they require leadership. Neither floor-leader Stuckey nor head coach Curry provide that right now. For better or worse, the team is stuck with Stuckey, but they can easily dump Curry. I think we've all seen enough.
As far as coaches, it seems that Carlyle brought a sort of identity to the Pistons...Defense. Maybe this identity was there before my awakening to any Detroit teams, but it seemed to fit. Hard working defense. Detroit's going to work. Detroit basketball. What happened to the defense? Carlyle wouldn't play Prince for whatever reason. Bring in Larry Brown. Championship. Not only was there defense but as far as I can tell, he's the only one thats been able to use and develop the bench. Something that drove me nuts about Flip. And now....
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm rather annoyed that the Pistons made the playoffs. I was REALLY hoping that there would at least be the offseason excitement of seeing who Davidson would send to represent the team for the lottery. Now all we get to look forward to is being the first grape crushed by Lebroneus Caesar on his climb to his inaugral championship.
ReplyDeleteAnd as we bow to Lebroneus Caesar, I'd like to quickly bitch about the refs (yes, I know it's an old bit). For some reason, the NBA refs base the free throw pecking order solely on the draft position. Derrick Rose, drafted #1, gets a ton of calls. Rodney Stuckey, drafted #15, gets no calls. Sure, I'm not the most objective fan in the world, but it still seems that Stuckey just gets no love.
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