[Grades] Grades v. Pistons 11/14/10

[Bricklayer]

Sigh. Some things looked better, then some things looked worse. Having odd brownouts all over our roster, this time notably in shooting (2-18 from 3pt land), and were again hurt by a few minutes of a bad lineup decision in the 4th, as we started things in the final quarter with a totally punchless Head/Wright/Cisco/JT/Cousins crew.

As they keep on losing I'll keep on using up my themes, and tonight so I don't get accused of being a complete lout I'll use one from the peanut gallery -- Reina's Pretty Boys I think. Keep those suggestions/lists coming BTW as at this rate I am going to need a LOT of themes this year.

Official Boxscore

Casspi ( C ) -- with the early start time to this one, I took a rare opportunity to rewatch this one and try to really get a feel for what was going on, and Omri is one of the guys who ended up with a slight bump in his grade because of that. Amidst the rest of the higher profile struggling going on, Omri too has been struggling to find himself in the narrowly constructed little niche that Westphal has tried to shove him into. I'm still to this day not sure why Coach made the decision to neuter our two young SFs at the very beginning of camp, and treat this team like some veteran squad with well established roles and the need for only a couple of roleplayers to go contend. But for whatever reason he did it, he did, and Omri's designated role has been spot up and defend, neither of which he did particualrly well tonight. And in fact the lingering image you would have tongiht of Omri was him up on the angle 3pt stripe clapping his hands and scowling at Beno to give him the ball so he could quick shoot another long brick. But upon the rewatch he was one fo the players I was focusing on, and the rest of his game was really not as bad as the numbers. Not great certainly, but in the early going in particular it was a bit of a mixed bag. Hit his only three, and one of the only two we hit all night, in the first quarter. Added a couple of rebounds, and a couple of scramble plays. The defense was not an issue in the early going either as the Pistons were having too much fun punching the big red Beno automatic 2pts button to bother to attack Omri. He was never hot, missed several little curls inside as well as all the rest of his threes (notably the one he hit was on the side angle, the ones he missed all long long ones up top). But he was givng a little here and a little there, and wasn't actively hurting us beyond one bad turnover up top leading to a Pistons breakaway. For a while the third was similar with another couple of boards and a nice steal up on top out of the zone which ended wiht him getting smacked in the neck as he tried to lay it up on the breakout. But then the little tete a tete with Beno remerged (on the rewatch I noted that Beno had twice, on back to back plays, ignored an open Benon in the first quarter too, and maybe there was some built up frustration). Then in the third Omri got ignored by Beno on a play at the three point line and looked disgusted about it and then fouled a Piston a few seconds later seemingly out of frustration. Finally did get a shot after a scramble sequence the next possessoon and promptly got his three blocked by Tayshaun. And once he left for Cisco (never that fat cheerleader guy on the bench) he never returned. But upon the rewatch, he was ok underneath, and it was mainly the shooting that was an issue. And while he contiues to get caught on screens and bothc rotations, his man defense was never a major issue either. It was a subpar game, but not as ugly as 25% shooting, 20% from 3ptland would suggest.

Greg Vaughn -- an actor/model apparently. And all we get is a cropped headshot. Girls really need lessons in how to be shallow.

Landry ( A- ) -- and if other guys were struggling, Carl may have had his strongest game of the season, particualrly in the first half. And so much of the reason was very simple: he finally got aggressive. He atacked inside, banged the offensive glas, and finally showed some of the "Mandry" persona that made him dynamic and valued in Houston rather than this lazy runt jumpshooter we've had running around killing our energy the first few weeks. Started the game with a miss but immediately came up with an aggressive, good effort inside on the offensive glass for the follow. And throughout the first quarter was posting up, getting hit on little cuts and curls, and then crashing the glass and coming up with o-rebs and follows. In fact was effectively our goto guy in the first half, and played it right. In the early 3rd made an inspiring play running the break hard, getting knoced out of the air by Maxiel and crashing to the floor with a big thump. But he came up smiling and all 11 remaining "best fans in the NBA" in attendance got to their feet in response. Back in for the final 4:00 after a long effective stretch by Jason kept him on the bench for much of the 4th, and never regained his momentum. Immediately missed an interior layup from Reke. Then fouled Villanueva to let the Pistons get to 4, and settled for the jumper after not going that hardly all game, and missed. Did grab a good d-board down the stretch, but after sucha godo start, not able to help us when it mattered. Still this wa much MUCH better than waht he has been giving us. Even the 2 20-10 games were shaky stylistically, but tonight he played the part of a credible physical presence. Just not enouhg help from the other guys.

Paul Walker -- note Reina's pic link did not work, so I thought I would take the liberty of finding her a replacement and showing her how beefcake is done. Sidenote: after nearly a decade of studiously ignoring the tripe, I finally this summer watched The Fast & the Furious and found it to actually not be as uunwatchable as I has thought/heard. Basically just a dumbed down (if that's possible) ripoff of Point Break. And Walker was no Brando and as deep as pie tin, but he wasn't the horrible actor I had heard he was either. Plus you know he's like totally dreamy.

Dalembert ( B ) -- this was an odd game for Daly, because he's normally the meat and potatoes rock back there doing all the little things that rarely draw much attention or get on the highlights. But this time it was largely the opposite. He made a game long series of spectacular offensive rebound putbacks for virtually all his production, but the meat and potatoes was largely missing, leaving you with just the salad and dessert. Normally one of our best d-boarders, he grabbed only 2 on the night. And while he anchored our zone defense, only once did he come up with a big block to key a runout in the early third. Ended up being shoved aside by an offensively assertive Cousins for many of the late minutes. Still, he and Landry really owned the offensive glass and cleaned up countless bricks by our merry chucksters on the perimeter to keep us in it. Far from a bad game for him, just atypical of what he has been giving us.

Reggie Bush -- disgraced NFLer Reggie Bush. From the chaste little headshot I will give you one guess who provided the picture.

Udrih ( C ) -- this was an odd, interesting, perhaps alarming little game from Beno in which he was offensively invisible, still could not hit a three, upon my rewatch did not do as wll in our halfcourt sets as I thought, but gathered most of his assists while being about the only guy pushing the tempo, got into a bit of an oncourt tiff with Omri who wanted more shots, and got torched badly enough on defense that it may have cost him half of his minutes on the night. So where to start? How about the defense, where he was getting lit up badly by Rip in the early going. So badly in fact that he was replaced and faced limited minutes the rest of the way, many of them playing in a zone as we again attempted to disguise our most porous defenders. But you see, that was not really the problem, the real problem was that in a Reke/Beno backcourt, Beno defense was judged poor enough that we could not risk him actually gaurding afellow PG, and so were forced to "hide" him on a guy 4 inches taller than he is. If you can't guard PGs, and you can't guard SGs... On the other side of the ball looked disjointed early, passing when he should be shooting, and shooting when he should be passing. Along the way on the rewatch he actually wasn't getting that much more out of our halfcourt sets than was Reke, with one notable exception: on several occasions was able to dribble across the top of the key and laser passes down inside to guys with deep post position. Reke never got those, adn upon a little reflection I know why: because those guys aren't there for Reke and are clearing out of the way to enable his penetration. The one thing that he did do with aplomb on the night was push the tempo and create on the break, an important characteristic as he was one of the few people gettign us "easy points". So...interesting. Beno and Landry have appeared to eb the two holdover vets besides Reke who the coach has implicit trust in, and yet the last few games there has been obvious discomfort with his defense, so much so that Luther Head stole his minutes tonight. With Beno notching 9 of our 14 total assists in his 22min, makes you wonder where that leaves us.

Marky Mark! -- hey, I've used this one before. And nice shallow picture too Reina. Why don't you just post a naked pciture next time? Jeesh.

 

[Bricklayer]

Evans ( C ) -- Reke, or specifically Reke's passing, was something else I wanted to watch closely on my rewatch to confirm some impressions. First of all there is this remarkable stat: Reke notched 1 assist on the night, uno, and yet upon rewatching and keeping count his teammates blew no less than 11 other assist opportunities he set up (as in directly missing the shots), Luther Head also three times dribbled away a potential assist because he is terminally unable to just catch and shoot and must always put the ball on the floor and screw up, Beno passed on an open short jumper Reke set up for him to make an ill advised pas instead, Jason got hacked on a point blank drop off from Reke and went ot the line instead of scoring the hoop, and Demarcus late in the game took a Reke pass, and drove to the hoop in what probably would not have been called an assist if he hit it (certainly not in Europe) but sometimes is if the scorekeeper is generous. That's 1 made assist, at least 11 blown assists, up up to 6 other opportunities that could have been assists if they had played out different. 1 of 18 basically. That's amazing. On the other hand should also be observed that in the first half Reke was simply passive, and while Reke's assist totals were very much the victim of our awful shooting (7 of the 11 blown assists were missed threes), he was not playing his game, not driving and kicking creating open looks, but rather just passively moving the ball around the perimeter. Sure they were decent looks, and potential assists, but you could hardly call them created. In any case, I relate all that just because I rewatched and kept a tally, and it is a huge discrepancy in the numbers. Now on the rest...
As mentioned in the early going looked tentative on offense, settling for jumpers and when he finally drove got it swatted by Big Ben. Jumper, jumper, jumper = not his game, but the Pistons would drop off and offer it up to him, and he would just take them. One of those games where the drives were rolling off too and several more times he came up gimpy wiht those ankles, and you had to wonder how much of the struggles were not bieng right physcally. How many rolls until you get a little gunshy? Finally got it going a little late in the half when he and Beno worked the fast break well. Got stronger after half. Got a couple of the js to fall in the third and quickly back in in the the early 4th after Westphal saw the folly of his offenseless Head/Wright backcourt and we started to slip. On an extended series of plays we went to him in the post against Ben Gordon and then Rodney Stuckey along the left block, and he repeatedly beat his men for scores. Unfortunately despite another strong hustling defensive half was not piocking up Gordon soon enoguh on defnese and could not contain him back the other way as they dueled. Played strong down the stretch on both ends, and scooped up the ball and went coast to coast to get us to 2 at the 3:00 mark before our final fade. Not dominant, but until the final desperate heave at the final buzzer, folowed up a 3-10 first half with a 6-10 second half. But it was an atypical game with too many jumpers methinks. Its improved, yes. But any team that can convince Tyreke Evans to take 6 jumpers in a row has to feel it has won.

Josh Holloway -- a bottled blond?

Bench
Head ( B ) -- and the flipside of the Beno development was Luther eating bigtime into his miuntes. Was in early with Beno ineffective on defense, and immediately came up wih a quick drive baseline for the score, and hit a three (feet set, makes a difference). Was competing much better against the bigger Pistons guards on defense. Played well off the bench, in fact our best guard before half and Beno was out a long long time. Made a dumb dumb play late in the 3rd after returning, going away from Reke posted on little Will Bynum to take the ball up top and force up a one on one three point brick. Then did another one one one dribble thing but hit it. Struggled to stay ahead of Bynum in the early 4th, but came up with some incredibly ugly foul draws and worked prety well with Reke overall until Beno returned for the strtech run. Head is hard to love. His game is ugly and he makes some just bleeping idiotic decisions and forced shots out there. But he's proving to be a scrappy guy, which is a good way to win over a coach, and when not being an idiot I thought he did a reasonable job of running the offense and providing some scoring bump tonight. Of course the last thing we need is ANOTHER potential roster muddle developing between he and Beno, but we'll see.

Milo Ventimiglia -- who I know mostly from playing Rocky's incredibly weenie son in Rocky Balboa (he did however, in that movie, hang out at the Irish Pub, one of my old favorite haunts from my Philly years.

Cousins ( C+ ) -- aggressive and messy game, but a promising one as you could again see the talent, and we actually ran our offense through him on the right block for long stretches. People have been calling or that, and for the first time we really went to it. Was outsaavied by not so Big Ben early on a foul, aggressively went at Monroe in the prove it matchup, but a mixed bag. A good take, but also an offensive foul and some real scrapping and turnovers. Was being doubeld often, another good sign, and flashed that passing when he hit Head nicely on a cut. Picked up his third foul on yet another dumb attempt to take a charge late, and on a PG to boot. He's a PG! You're a center! Go smush that shot! Still felt he was better than his numbers in first half. Not efficient, but he was playing aggressively and phsyically. Returned in the third and immediately grabbed a couple of strong defensive rebounds, but on the first of them made a mistake and let Ben immediately take it from him. Eating boards in the early 4th, but picked up his 6th (yes 6 turnvoers) on a bad pass. We played offense defense with he and Daly down the stretch, and Cousins came up big with a drive and layup. Setting aside the wave of TOs, whcih were were equally of the rookie vs. one of the saaviest post defenders of all time (Big Ben), bad pass trying to force too much, and forgiveable over aggression varieties, I actually fel this was a pretty good game for DeMarcus, and Coach agreed as he ate into Dalmebert's time considerably. Have to say too that while he is still no sort of presence out there, the defense has been looking a little more professional of late. Poor, but professional. And his defensive reboudning was very strong and helped us close down defensive posssessions. Have to hold this grade down because of all those turnovers, but I was tempted to go B-.

David Carr -- and isn't it just like a girl to develop a crush on the pretty boy quarterback? Never the guys up front who do all the work.Note, yet another pic that did not work.

Cisco ( D ) -- bad game for Cisco, and while its obviously compeltely unfair to tag a loss on one player, when you look at this game compared to others he has been having, if he does no more than have his average game this season, we win this one. Did not look good early, tried to be aggressive on defense but missed all his shots. Returned to play the end of the third and all the 4th, but never got much done. We tried to use him as a goto guy during a brief ill fated offenseless lineup we went with in the early 4th, but he missed everything, and we floundered and lost all the ground we had made up. Some aggressive defense on TMac, but Tracy was looking like the old TMac and went right over him. Eventually poked some balls away and at least harassed. Wasn't providing any weakside rebounding in the zone, and balls that kicked off the far side of the rim were repeaedly beign scooped up by various Pistosn around him. Hit one big jumepr to keep us in it in the final minutes, but struggled trying to guard the much taller Prince. Got beat right over the top to make the lead 4 again at the 1:00 mark, and then next possession his inability to handle Prince 1 on 1 led to Reke having to double, which opened up Gordon for the game icing three at the 24 second mark.

James Franco

 

[Bricklayer]

Thompson ( B+ ) -- hey hey, what do you know, Jason Thompson can actually play PF! Who woulda thunk, eh coach? Nice litle boucneback game for Jason, and was very solid working next to Cousins in both the 2nd and 4th quarters. In fact was playing so well in the 4th that he kept Landry, who was our best player on the nigiht, pinned to the bench until the 4:00 mark. He grabbed boards, showed better interior defense than he normally does, and played within himself. Tried to set a screen after returning in the third and Bynum ran hard into his extended arm and went down. Repeatedly came up with saving offensive rebound tip follows in the early 4th to hold us close.

Gabriel Aubry -- a model with whom I am often confused

Wright ( C- ) -- this game did not offend me as much as it did others, but his minutes do remain remarklably empty. Made a few little plays this time, scooping up a steal, taking a Cousins airball for an offensive rebound and follow etc. But also cotinued to not be abel to hit the broad side of a barn as a shooter, and onc agian a guy who is supposed to be a defensive specialist had no particualr impact o that side of the floor. was part fo several good defensive hustling units we put out there, but individually never any effect. What DID Donte do to deseerve this?

Mark Sanchez -- sigh, more QBs.

Frtios ( B+ ) -- greasy, but still addictive

Kerry Rhodes -- no doubt added in just to try to disguyise the rampant QB fetish going on here, but we are onto you. Not to mention your Jets fetish?

 

[Showtime]

http://espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=301114023

Shot chart for 3's is disgusting. Evan's improved what? Jumper? check his shot chart. This team needs either to improve basic skills, or get players who already have them.

 

[jpsls]

Head=Douby

I'd hate to beat a dead horse, but why is PW giving Donte's minutes to a guy who had a DUI?!?! Any theories on what Donte did to deserve this treatment?

 

[Bricklayer]

http://espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=301114023

Shot chart for 3's is disgusting. Evan's improved what? Jumper? check his shot chart. This team needs either to improve basic skills, or get players who already have them.

Did you watch the game?

Was not there in the first half, and a consequence of it being improved is unfortunately he will take them now even when they are not falling if it seems like the right play. Frankly preferred it when he'd just hammer it inside. Started to hit them after half and was vitimizing the Pistons off the left block with that.

 

[Spok22]

Why the HELL do we have antoine wright on our team?

 

[jpsls]

Why is he even getting any minutes?!!??!?

 

[ReinadelosReys]

As they keep on losing I'll keep on using up my themes, and tonight so I don't get accused of being a completer lout I'll use one from the peanut gallery -- Reina's Pretty Boys .

Woot!

On the Kings....it was a less frustrating loss if that counts for getting better? Had the Kings won this game, I would have considered it a "bad" win given the way they played (not horribly, but not exactly like they should have won). And I'm not a doctor, but I think Reke is going to have ankle issues every single game this year

 

[Showtime]

Did you watch the game?

Most of it.

Was not there in the first half, and a consequence of it being improved is unfortunately he will take them now even when they are not falling if it seems like the right play.

I don't see that at all from Evans. I see him, where a midrange jumper would be the right play, he drive into Ben Wallace or J-Max for an awkward missed layup attempt, offensive foul, or a jump-pass. I saw one or two instances of him taking the right shot when the defense gave him an ungodly amount of space and left him wide open, but for the most part, he still hasn't learned when and how to use his jumper. And the shot chart shows he's not good enough to use it as a weapon.

Frankly preferred it when he'd just hammer it inside.

Why do you people on this site act as if this is a black and white issue? It's not one or the other. It's not "take jumpers all day" vs "attack all night". I, too, want Evans to attack the basket. But so many times he gets free initially, and has an opportunity to pull up with a 12 footer, only to go back inside into traffic and end up with a bad play. Sometimes that works out for him, sometimes it doesn't, but he can still be a deadly penetrator but make smarter decisions instead of constantly trying to create off the dribble drive 99% of the time, and often making big mistakes because of it.

Started to hit them after half and was vitimizing the Pistons off the left block with that.

He only hit like two on the left block. And what was happening was the team isoing him on the baseline like I was clamoring on about last gamethread. They definitely need more of Evans posting up and exploiting his advantage over the opposition instead of trying to attack from the top of the key every single time.

 

[itzcoatl]

Sigh. Westphal = F. When this season started I was excited about our size advantage and length. I wanted to see guys likes Donte, and Whiteside. Instead I'm watching Head, and Wright.

 

[Lockehead]

He only hit like two on the left block. And what was happening was the team isoing him on the baseline like I was clamoring on about last gamethread. They definitely need more of Evans posting up and exploiting his advantage over the opposition instead of trying to attack from the top of the key every single time.

This was because Tyreke stopped trying to be the playmaker. I too want him to start being the offenseive threat that he is. We need a distributor other than Tyreke, so that Tyreke himself can get into position and do what he does best. I too hate seeing him playing around the perimeter playmaking off of his dribble drive or passes. I want another point guard to take up that responsibility, and have Tyreke go to work in the 2 position.

 

[Dr. Spaceman]

An A+ to Paul Westphal for allowing this team to completely ignore the size and skill advantage that Cousins had against the entire Pistons front line for the entire second half. Another plus for throwing Head out there to guard the 6'7" Rip Hamilton while offering nothing on offense late other than iffy shooting. Tayshaun Prince was ripping us a new one so we decided to stick the undersized Cisco on him to, uh, not contain him since Casspi couldn't.

The only reliable quality that we've seen out of this team through the young season is that the coaching is the weakest link every single night. I'm just completely confused at the 180 that the decision making has made since early last season, when everyone was behind Westphal and all the players knew their roles. This year's version of Westphal makes it seem obvious that he has no idea what he wants out of this team and what to do with all of his pieces. As young as this team is, most of the players at least have pretty defined skill sets for him to piece together logically, yet both our offense and defense are demoralizingly ugly because no one knows what's expected of them when game time arrives. Hence JT at SF the past few games (he was placed at his natural position tonight, closer to the basket, and lo and behold he had a solid night doing what he does best. Epiphany!).

Not panicking at all -- just noting that our coaching staff is actively hurting our chances to win every night and things need to change soon -- preferably a change toward the more sane side of things.

 

[Larry89]

Next Theme = Mysteries of Medical Science??

 

[Kingster]

Cousins didn't play very well tonight. Growing pains. Go for the rebound with two hands, big man.

Tyreke didn't really play like Tyreke. It's the bum ankle. As long as it doesn't turn into something chronic his ankle problem is going to steer him to do other things that need improving in his game - outside shooting, moving the ball, getting on the low block. It could be a good thing for his long term development that he has this ouwiee now.

Landry didn't play like a dog. Maybe he had a film session with coach?

Thompson played pretty well.

The rest of the guys played ok, just couldn't shoot, and when you can't shoot, nothing looks good.

 

[King Baller]

O Failure to post up either Landry or Cousins in or near the painted area with an entry pass on at least 50% of offensive possessions.

Quick chucking the ball early in the shot clock!

Thats my vote on the poll,
KB

 

[King Baller]

Thompson and Cousins looked good on the floor together. Defended the paint and grabbed the boards.

KB

 

[King Baller]

Double tap.

KB

 

[gunks]

Thompson and Cousins looked good on the floor together. Defended the paint and grabbed the boards.

KB

It worked? We'll probably never see that lineup again...

 

[Spok22]

lol ^

 

[rainmaker]

Really not that bad of a game. The effort was there. We played well enough to win, but missed countless open shots.

JT was solid tonight. He played pf, go figure. Landry played better, but is still allergic to passing. Dally really played well, and was all over the offensive glass and was able to convert inside. Tyreke isn't playing the the Tyreke was were used to seeing last year. Maybe it's the ankles, maybe it's the confidence in the jumper, maybe it's him trying to create for teammates more often, but he's not attacking the paint and finishing like he used to. Still early though, not worried.

Head actually seemed to settle in after forcing some poor shots in the early going, and I thought helped keep the game close. Beno's defense, or lack of, really stuck out tonight. The whole team needs to improve defensively, but it will be hard to correct a lot of mistakes when our pg is getting broken down every other trip down the court. Guys are constantly having to help on Beno's man, and that just sets a chain of events that usually ends with a basket or us committing a foul. That is a glaring area of concern for me going forward, and one of the first problems I would try to fix if we move someone at the trade deadline.

I do NOT like seeing Anthony freaking Wright in the game instead of Donte. This guys hasn't contributed anything, bricked wide open 3's we needed, and taking away the little available playing time for Donte. This needs to change. Donte might not be impressing in practice, and might not be deserving of major minutes, but on this team, with our wings, there is no excuse for not giving him at least 5-10 minutes a game. We're a struggling, rebuilding team, who has no wings that can defend worth a damn, and is exactly the situation for a guy like Donte to get a few minutes, if not more.

One other thing that bothers me, and is bothering me more and more, is Omri's shot selection and apparent need to get shots up. He got in a little spat with Beno for not moving the ball, after Beno took and made an open ft line jumper. Good shot, he hit it. Next possession he's open on the wing, and Beno looks him off. I would to, because Omri likes to jack up 3's in that situation(early in the shot clock), and was clearly wanting a shot. Omri's response? Backcourt foul, then says something to Beno while going back on defense. Next trip down, early in the shot clock, jacks up a 25 ft airball as soon as he touched it. I went back and watched this sequence twice.

That's only a 2 min stretch in a 48 min game. Not a big deal. But there's a pattern here. Omri is not only setting for a lot of 3's, but he's taking them too early in the shot clock as well. Sometimes, he clearly has his mind made up that this ball is going up before he even catches it, and a lot of the time it's not the right play. But seriously, it seems that 80% of the time all Omri is looking to do is jack up a 3. I don't know what exactly Westphal said his role is, or how Omri has interpreted it, but he's basically playing a Steve Kerr role, but with a quicker trigger. Omri is a very aggressive player,which I love, but he's got to learn how to use tht aggression to draw fouls and attack the basket more. He's becoming way too much of a one dimensional player.

 

[cfechter]

What's most depressing about this is that even the BAD teams beat other bad teams at home usually - if we lose to Minnesota and Detroit at home, how bad are we really?

 

[swisshh]

The thing with Omri is a cascade effect. In the "players unhappy with not getting looks on the fast break department", Casspi has been one of the guys you can see get visibly upset on the court about it. Players start worrying about when they'll next see a shot, so they start chucking and then others start chucking(Hi there Luther Head) and suddenly people are impatient with their shots.

Because this team doesn't know what sort of offense it should run, the players have no sense of where they are getting shots, unless they are Tyreke or they get Iso plays like Landry. A lack of offensive identity and continuity is hurting the team. Let alone, the bland offense are making these games god damned boring to watch.

 

[Bricklayer]

Next Theme = Mysteries of Medical Science??

Put together a list + send it to me

 

[bajaden]

Sigh. Westphal = F. When this season started I was excited about our size advantage and length. I wanted to see guys likes Donte, and Whiteside. Instead I'm watching Head, and Wright.

I'm a little confused with all this criticism of Head. He played very well tonight. He was 5 of 8 from the floor and played very good defense. He's one of the few guards that trys to make entry passes into the post. When he has a bad game I can understand, but when he plays well, I don't get it.

 

[Lockehead]

^ I agree.

 

[bajaden]

What's most depressing about this is that even the BAD teams beat other bad teams at home usually - if we lose to Minnesota and Detroit at home, how bad are we really?

Minny is a bad team. Detroit is not a bad team. They'll more than likely make the playoffs in the east. They won't go far, but right now they're a better team than we are.

 

[Asaf]

Minny is a bad team. Detroit is not a bad team. They'll more than likely make the playoffs in the east. They won't go far, but right now they're a better team than we are.

Detroit is awful. Better than us, but still awful. They still have the same squad from thei horrific last season, with the addition of TMac, who is a scrub these days, and Greg Monroe, and the subtraction of Jerebko, who is out injured for pretty much the entire season. They weren't close to making the playoffs last year. I don't see how they can make the playoffs this year.

 

[steelevt]

I'm a little confused with all this criticism of Head. He played very well tonight. He was 5 of 8 from the floor and played very good defense. He's one of the few guards that trys to make entry passes into the post. When he has a bad game I can understand, but when he plays well, I don't get it.

+1

after reading a thread about the unability to make an entry pass, i looked for it this game and head was the only person i consistently saw trying to make entry passes to our big men down low. he also played some good D and didnt make any horrible moves except for the foul on the 3 pt shot that should not have been called anyways. now i dont want him to play a lot of minutes but head did ok and i wouldnt mind him in to spell beno or tyreke for a few mins

 

[swisshh]

Head did make entry passes this game. Emphasis on this game. Previously, he was chucking and he still rarely takes a set, open shot. It was good to see him feed the post and have an actual post offense for a few plays until Cousins got mad at the refs. Since the post passing has been a rarity, I don't think fans trust it will continue and instead fear Head's shooting.