Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I had a good idea for a grades theme suggested to me last night, and it is a variety of something I had on my theme list in any case. I have been wanting to do something else on cars other thean the one Movie Cars theme, and have been looking for an angle. Supercars? Hot cars? Ugly cars? Worst cars? Wasn't sure. But it was suggested that in honor of Detroit why not go with Detroit Muscle Cars, and as its an area where I have some prior knowledge (my brother loves the beasties and is currently restoring a '71 Challenger and '69 El Camino), it seems like a doable theme even on the froint end of a weekend back to back.
Accordingly, the theme tonight: Classic American Muscle Cars*
*many people do not know that Australia produced its own array of muscle cars during the same era, but since this is in honor of the Pistons, I'll stick to those from detroit's heyday as auto mecca.
Cisco ( C ) -- really did absolutely nothing himself offensively in the first half, and seemed not to have read the scouting reports, or apparently watched the NBA in the last decade, as he too seemed to want to "force" Rip towards the baseline for his favorite shot. But did distribute the ball well in one of our best halves of the season in Ast/TO (16/3), and finished the half on a high note stealing the ball from a ridiculously casual Hamilton just before half to give us the last shot rather than the Pistons. Second half was largely more of the same, with minutes being limited by the fact all our starters were technically comingoff the bench. Hit a couple of irrelevant hoops, but had a poor night on offense. Was honored with being the spare wheel to the Bibby/Martin/Artest/Miller quartet that ran through crunchtime, and was apprpriately invisible besides forcing a long, and none too bright three.
Shelby GT500 Mustang ('67) -- while I've largely grown past any muscle car fetishes, I've always thought these beasts were wicked hot. Adn wicked fast. Featuring an 428cu big block V8 on a light chassis, these things were not designed to be caught. In fact law enforcement agencies used them for police interceptors.
Moore ( C- ) -- had a Mikki first half, getting scored over easily by McDyess, but maybe bothering Sheed a bit on one of Sheed's I can hardly bother to care nights. On the other end the normal Miki stuff -- missed jumpers, but several cuts to the rim for dunks. No rebounding at any point, and was fumbling ball once again. Lost all his crunchtime minutes as Reggie decided that his homie Cisco was a better bet to play Mr. Irrelevant out there during the stretch run. Another lot of minutes minimal production game -- 33min 6pts 5rebs -- but hey, was no worse than Sheed, and Sheed is someone that his team is actually supposed to rely on.
Chevy Nova ('72) -- Chevy Novas were pathetic little cars for most of their existence, except for the period '68 to '74 when they emerged as one of the smallest and lightest of the musclecars. The standard engine was a V8 307, but as in the baby above, 350s were common, and I think there was even a 396. And on such a small car that made the beasties really jump.
Miller ( B+ ) -- this game was all about Brad in the early going, scoring 9 of our first 12 points, but thereafter he was almost frozen out of the offense, rarely touched the ball, and did not put up another shot until a missed wide open three to end the first half. Finally hit another jumper midway through the 4th after going dead silent for the 2nd and 3rd, and I think may have had another therafter. And of course continued to hit FTs at a ridiculous rate for a big man -- one of the most ludicrously overrated stats in the history of basketball is big men FT shooting, given that the last dozen NBA champions have all featured Shaq, Duncan, Ben Wallace, or Rodman -- guys who would be lucky to hit 60%. But in the last month Brad's FTs shooting has been so ridiculous that it has actually been helping us win games. Brad is the best FT shooter on our team, 20th in the league, and .001% behind Micahel Redd. Also contributed by of course being the passer on the play we ran to ice it out of the timeout. Sheed was godawful back the other way, but as usual with Sheed, that had next to nothing to do with Brad and everything to do with the sad little gerbil inhabiting Sheed's cranium. Going with the "+" here as the numbers would seem to dictate, but watching the game that's not really the way it felt. Brad was huge for the first 6 minutes of the game, but then was a compete no show for a long long stretch there before emerging to make some plays late. Overall it was a solid outing, and like Beno he controlled a short section of the game before the bench took over, but he wasn't important for long stretches of this one.
Pontica GTO ('66) -- the Goat, as they came to be known, is considered by many to be the first true muscle car with its famous 389cu standard V8. Ironically, the biggest problem this car had was its own makers -- during that era Chevrolet engaged in the highly dubious internal policy of intentionally crippling its other muscle cars in order to promote its Corvette. Hence cars were to be held under certain hp limits so that the Vette could clearly be the premiere line (and be sold for more of course).
Salmons ( D- ) -- And *poof* just like that John Salmons disappeared back into the shadows. Reduced to a nonshooting roleplayer I guess, as basically did not shoot at all that I can recall in the first half. Just moved the ball, and when he finally did venture to finish a drive, it was blocked at the rim. Did nothing in the third, and was having some problems guarding Rip, and so was just kind of quietly pulled and that was that. Our "bench" took over. Count down to trade demand...10...9...
Plymouth Roadrunner ('70) -- when it debuted, the roadrunner was supposed to be a back to basics musclecar. So muc so that they did not even come with carpeting standard. It was basically a shell with an engine. And it turned out to be a helluva engine too. It shipped wiht eithe a standard 335cu, or for a few hundred more you could upgrade to a 427 Hemi. Give you one guess what option most buyers chose.
Accordingly, the theme tonight: Classic American Muscle Cars*
*many people do not know that Australia produced its own array of muscle cars during the same era, but since this is in honor of the Pistons, I'll stick to those from detroit's heyday as auto mecca.
Cisco ( C ) -- really did absolutely nothing himself offensively in the first half, and seemed not to have read the scouting reports, or apparently watched the NBA in the last decade, as he too seemed to want to "force" Rip towards the baseline for his favorite shot. But did distribute the ball well in one of our best halves of the season in Ast/TO (16/3), and finished the half on a high note stealing the ball from a ridiculously casual Hamilton just before half to give us the last shot rather than the Pistons. Second half was largely more of the same, with minutes being limited by the fact all our starters were technically comingoff the bench. Hit a couple of irrelevant hoops, but had a poor night on offense. Was honored with being the spare wheel to the Bibby/Martin/Artest/Miller quartet that ran through crunchtime, and was apprpriately invisible besides forcing a long, and none too bright three.
Shelby GT500 Mustang ('67) -- while I've largely grown past any muscle car fetishes, I've always thought these beasts were wicked hot. Adn wicked fast. Featuring an 428cu big block V8 on a light chassis, these things were not designed to be caught. In fact law enforcement agencies used them for police interceptors.
Moore ( C- ) -- had a Mikki first half, getting scored over easily by McDyess, but maybe bothering Sheed a bit on one of Sheed's I can hardly bother to care nights. On the other end the normal Miki stuff -- missed jumpers, but several cuts to the rim for dunks. No rebounding at any point, and was fumbling ball once again. Lost all his crunchtime minutes as Reggie decided that his homie Cisco was a better bet to play Mr. Irrelevant out there during the stretch run. Another lot of minutes minimal production game -- 33min 6pts 5rebs -- but hey, was no worse than Sheed, and Sheed is someone that his team is actually supposed to rely on.
Chevy Nova ('72) -- Chevy Novas were pathetic little cars for most of their existence, except for the period '68 to '74 when they emerged as one of the smallest and lightest of the musclecars. The standard engine was a V8 307, but as in the baby above, 350s were common, and I think there was even a 396. And on such a small car that made the beasties really jump.
Miller ( B+ ) -- this game was all about Brad in the early going, scoring 9 of our first 12 points, but thereafter he was almost frozen out of the offense, rarely touched the ball, and did not put up another shot until a missed wide open three to end the first half. Finally hit another jumper midway through the 4th after going dead silent for the 2nd and 3rd, and I think may have had another therafter. And of course continued to hit FTs at a ridiculous rate for a big man -- one of the most ludicrously overrated stats in the history of basketball is big men FT shooting, given that the last dozen NBA champions have all featured Shaq, Duncan, Ben Wallace, or Rodman -- guys who would be lucky to hit 60%. But in the last month Brad's FTs shooting has been so ridiculous that it has actually been helping us win games. Brad is the best FT shooter on our team, 20th in the league, and .001% behind Micahel Redd. Also contributed by of course being the passer on the play we ran to ice it out of the timeout. Sheed was godawful back the other way, but as usual with Sheed, that had next to nothing to do with Brad and everything to do with the sad little gerbil inhabiting Sheed's cranium. Going with the "+" here as the numbers would seem to dictate, but watching the game that's not really the way it felt. Brad was huge for the first 6 minutes of the game, but then was a compete no show for a long long stretch there before emerging to make some plays late. Overall it was a solid outing, and like Beno he controlled a short section of the game before the bench took over, but he wasn't important for long stretches of this one.
Pontica GTO ('66) -- the Goat, as they came to be known, is considered by many to be the first true muscle car with its famous 389cu standard V8. Ironically, the biggest problem this car had was its own makers -- during that era Chevrolet engaged in the highly dubious internal policy of intentionally crippling its other muscle cars in order to promote its Corvette. Hence cars were to be held under certain hp limits so that the Vette could clearly be the premiere line (and be sold for more of course).
Salmons ( D- ) -- And *poof* just like that John Salmons disappeared back into the shadows. Reduced to a nonshooting roleplayer I guess, as basically did not shoot at all that I can recall in the first half. Just moved the ball, and when he finally did venture to finish a drive, it was blocked at the rim. Did nothing in the third, and was having some problems guarding Rip, and so was just kind of quietly pulled and that was that. Our "bench" took over. Count down to trade demand...10...9...
Plymouth Roadrunner ('70) -- when it debuted, the roadrunner was supposed to be a back to basics musclecar. So muc so that they did not even come with carpeting standard. It was basically a shell with an engine. And it turned out to be a helluva engine too. It shipped wiht eithe a standard 335cu, or for a few hundred more you could upgrade to a 427 Hemi. Give you one guess what option most buyers chose.
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