Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose Pistons Preview

Love Grantland so much. Simmons does a wonderful job of writing and this year they are doing 15 minute previews of every team in order. Jalen looking like he needs some harvey jewelry.

They have the Pistons checking in at 12 overall, which puts them in the playoffs this year.

They got screwy after the top 15 and started to list them in weird sets. Just look at the bottom of the page and see "Jalen's latest" to find the next ones. 30-16 start here:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9752786/bill-jalen-nba-preview-grantland-channel/

Pistons end up with #8 pick in Draft Lottery

The Cavs seem to keep winning this thing. Eventually they are going to find the next Lebron right? No...they aren't. There isn't one. For the Pistons picking in the top 10 is necessary,b ut they still can't seem to pin down a true superstar in the draft. The Darko debacle still holds true today with guys past over playing deep into the playoffs once again this year still while nobody talks about Darko other than to mention how bad a pick it was. He got a bit of a bump in notice after the Lions draft of course when they went and took Ansah who is basically about as experienced in football as he was. Ugh...Pistons have sucked for too long. It's to the point that you have to go to sites that you need to use Iolo.com pc tune up after to get info.

Andre Drummond is Making the Pistons Worthy of a Watch Now Too

Not only are the Michigan Wolverines hoops team drawing a lot more interest, but the Pistons may be getting back on the map as well. Their latest 1st round draft pick Andre Drummond is bringing a lot of excitement to Detroit with his play. The 7'0" C is an offensive rebounding and alley-oop machine with his PER-36 numbers matching up with some of the best in the game, and right there with some of the past greats as rookies like Dwight Howard. Here was a good article comparing the two from a few weeks back. Here's an ESPN article talking the per 36 stats from a week ago.

Lawrence Frank is proving to be a coach that many fans who love the game are starting to recognize as well. We're all hoping that he doesn't get the shaft when the Pistons actually become good again because he has certainly done a great job with the trash of a team he has had since he has been here. A team of guys that look like they came from a wholesale catalog. He gets way more out of these guys than anyone should. The way he has used Drummond so far? Many fans want him to get more minutes. This guy thinks that Franks has used him to perfection so far.

Pistons Draft Pick Andre Drummond

Like most years, the Pistons win just enough to give themselves very little chance to hit a high lotto pick. This year they placed in at #9 overall, but we may have gotten the guy we wanted anyways. Andre Drummond. A raw and athletic big man with enormous reach. This guy is no offensive juggernaut, but is a great rebounder and good shot blocker. Putting him up front with Greg Monroe should make things a bit more of a forest getting to the rim than it has been without avery labels. Drummond is a wildcard really. He's EXTREMELY athletic for his size. At nearly 7 foot he can actually handle the ball fairly well. Watching videos on Youtube of him I was quite surprised at how agile he was and how he could actually dribble. He's no point guard with handles obviously,b ut he isn't out there dribbling it off his foot either. With very low competition in high school I actually saw a lot I liked in this video: He had a better release and shot than I thought, but what surprised me the most was his ability with the ball on the move. At one point he took a full court break end to end with the ball in his hands. He's obviously a guy that will make his points around the basket with a lot of put backs and dunks, but if he can learn a post game he could be a major pickup for us in the long run. For where we picked I was quite happy with Drummond being there. Team feels a bit more exciting now. Especially since Gordon got traded and we shouldn't have to watch 3-4 guard lineups so damn much.

Pistons Try Too Hard

The Detroit Pistons have too much heart apparently. While dreaming of a disaster season that would finish with them in a dead heat for the top pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, the Pistons have come on in the post All-star game run and just pushed themselves allt he way back to 9, or worse. Today they had a chance to lose some groudn in the standings, but instead they, like a knife in my eye, pull out a late game victory against one of their Lottery competitors the Toronto Raptors. A season of no consequence. Not good enough to make the playoffs, but too good to get a draft pick worth a damn. The horrid continues for us Piston fans. So with 2 games left the best we can hope for is spot #9 in the lottery. You can put this season in some compost tumblers and call me again next year.

Cavs Offer to Take our #8 Pick and Rip for...Nothing

Ok let's look at this trade for a second. Cleveland is a dump of a team since LEbron left. They got "lucky" and ended up witht he #1 pick int he draft. They have more picks from other trades and want to deal the #8 (ours) and #4 picks to mve up to #1 and take the best 2 players in the draft. Fine and dandy.

So what do we get out of this? nothing. They take Rip Hamilton and his current contract which has 2 years left. For this favor we get to give them our #8 pick in the first round. We get nothing in return.

http://www.sensareviews.net

This makes no sense. Unless out goal is to try and lose as many game as possible next year that is. The Pistons aren't going to sign anyone significant int he off season. So getting rid of Rip's deal for no return does nothing for us. Our only real chance to get back is to hit the lotto int he draft. Even if this draft is considered "weak" we still are better off holding Rip, and the pick, and then dealing Rip in his expiring year for some other pieces.

If we were going to do this deal Cleveland should be tossing in their 1st rounder for 2012, or 2013 to seal it. Rip isn't exactly a slouch over here. The guy is a great player and would be a nice fit on a playoff team if his contract wasn't so huge.

Gores in Final Stages of Pistons Purchase

According to NBA commissioner David Stern, Tom Gores is in the final stages of acquiring the Detroit Pistons.

Between his time forcing players to wear suits and get tattoo removal Stern said: “I'm going to catch up with Mr. Gores either tonight or tomorrow to say hi. I met with him at my offices, where he met with our entire senior staff, and we know that there are very intense negotiations going on, which are in their final stages, which means either there will be a deal or there won't be a deal within the next week.

“And every indication is that there will be a deal, and we'll see how that goes.”

Just get it done. This is such an abortion since the old man died. We need an owner ready to throw some money around.

Monroe Finally Breaks 20 Points Tonight

Following the Pistons the last few years can best be described as brutal, and disappointing. Not only have we watched guys like Billups and Sheed leave, we are now waiting for Rip to be traded while he rides the pine every night. It's just a disaster.

We sing a guy like Ben Gordon for too much money while we keep Rip last year for no reason at all. Se we could watch another season of worthless 3 guard line ups and the lack of big men.

In comes Greg Monroe. A guy that is not expected to be a star. Ever. A decent #4 probably on a good time in the long run. a 15/9 guy hopefully I would say. Certainly has the ability to be close to a double double guy and you can see some improvement in his defense here and there.

Suffice to say, he finally hit the 20 point mark for the first time in a Piston's win that halted a 4 game skid. They played the Nets that haven't won a road game since mid-November. They have lost 22 of their last 23 road games. Yeah they won't have anyone at a microphone anytime soon except the coach after he gets fired.

Astonishingly, the Pistons are still in the hunt for a playoff spot. That's right. The NBA is complete trash. Especially the East. It is just plain horrible to watch some of these teams the league is so watered down right now. There may be a handful of teams worth watching and that is being nice.

Pistons Back to Losing Ways

Certainly, I wasn't expecting much out of our beloved Pistons this year. I have not been disappointed at all since I honestly had no expectations of finishing outside the lottery with the team currently assembled. T-Mac wasn't exactly a signing that made me think we were going anywhere.

So...they start 0-3 and after the opener I kind of missed the next 2. They blew a game they lead by 7 with under 2 minutes left and got an 11-0 run put up on them. A game easily won, and just as easily pissed away apparently.

Hey at least the Lions won today and I got my landscape lights put in.

Man, Detroit Sports Are Kind of "Meh" Right now

No hope for the Lions. No hope for the Pistons. I don't care about hockey. The Tigers are done, and the only news out of that clubhouse is that Brandon Inge has been re-signed to re-establish his Tiger For Life title.

If you don't like hockey what do you have? The Tigers are the only other team that even has a chance. We don't even have a superstar on the Pistons to watch every night. It's abysmal. We have T-Mac 5 years after he was good. We have 2 starting SGs that shouldn't be on the same team. We have no real center. Big Ben is about 40. Stuckey isn't a real PG.

The Lions have more penalties than points most likely. They have ONE win in Week 7.

What are we doing? Somebody get good please. I need it. It is my life's blood. I must have one of these teams win something worth a damn at all times. If I have to pretend I like hockey one more basketball season I will alli kick a hole in my TV.

Pistons Sign Tracey McGrady to a 1-Yeat Deal at Vet Minimum

As if the Pistons haven't done enough to secure the future of the franchise, they pull another huge move and sign T-Mac to a 1-year $1.3 million deal. Yes. That was sarcasm.

In another worthless move that is sure to produce nothing, the Pistons sign the oft-injured, has been, choker, T-Mac to a one-year deal in which he says he will accept a role off the bench.

The Pistons significant moves this year so far are: oh wait they haven't made any. Actually signing anyone at this point feels like getting hit by a stun guns as weak as the team has been since trading away Chauncey Billups.

Clearly not on anyone's list of dream destinations of the 2010-2011 NBA season, Detroit signed a guy nobody else wanted and hope that he can play more than 30 games before he is injured again.

35-47 here we come!

See ya, Lebron. Thanks for the Central

While the Pistons aren't even close to being a legit team right now, the departure of Lebron from the Central division can't do anything, but help us. It turns a Cleveland Cavs team from a 50+ win team into a 20-30 win team at best overnight. This opens up a path for prime playoff seeding in the next 5 or so years for anyone left behind.

Division winners in each NBA conference get the top 3 seeds on their side of the bracket. This means that even if you were the 8th best team in the playoffs, even though you won your division you are at worst a 3 seed. More home games is your reward for playing in a terrible division.

While the Bulls are probably in the best shape of us all in this horrid division, things change fast in the NBA and the lack of Lebron can only help us reach the top much sooner. Of course the need for a hair loss cure worrying about actually trying to knock off a team that has Lebron, DWade, and Chris Bosh to actually win anything is still a long ways off.

Hey, we knocked off the 2004 Lakers so it isn't unheard of for a dream team to go down to someone nobody expects. I'm sure luck will come into play at some point with injuries from this big 3 eventually and give someone else a shot. Maybe they implode like the Lakers did too and can't play together?

Anyways, SEE YA LEBRON!

Joe D Courted By the NJ Nets

The 12-70 New Jersey Nets courted the Pistons GM Joe Dumars this week trying to fill the role of their vacant team president position. Dumars declined and said he will stay with the Pistons.

That begs the question. Did you really want Joe D to stay? As a Pistons fan you can't really get on Joe D. HE won 2 titles as a player, and brought in a title as a GM along with several ECF appearances in a row with his acquisitions of guys like Billups, Rip, Big Ben, Tayshaun, and Rasheed.

People will bring up all the BAD moves though and we have to see if those outweigh the good. We got a title. That trumps all of it for me. He is well respected by everyone in the league and he is OURS. A true Piston.

So...he drafted Darko instead of Melo, Bosh, and DWade. HUGE mistake that probably cost us a couple more titles. Other GMs probably would have been fired for that alone. Of course we weren't going 12-70 every year either, but competing for NBA titles.

AI, Gordon, etc. AI turned out to be a pretty awful move as well considering what the money was spent on that trading Billups freed up. Ben Gordon mostly, who plays the same position as our top scorer Rip Hamilton. A head scratcher from the beginning, and something I was not looking forward to. I still don't like it.

Joe D needs to get up off the mattress and bring some more hope to the fans that's for sure. Some of these moves add up to a lot of ugliness recently. Hopefully the sale of the team brings new life and more money available to us.

Pistons seek Help In Selling Team

I think it is safe to say that most fans, and current management would welcome new ownership as soon as possible. While Old Man Davidson was a huge basketball fan, and a respected owner, his widow isn't exactly into the whole thing. She has stated she wants to sell the team and it looks like it will happen at some point. Thank God.

While she is too late in life to hook up with a term life insurance quote most likely, she doesn't really need one when she has a half a billion dollar team ready to unload.

The Detroit Pistons officially are for sale.

The Pistons and Palace Sports & Entertainment announced Wednesday that they have hired Citi Private Bank Sports Advisory -- a subsidiary of Citigroup -- as a financial advisor to assist in the sale of the team.

The Pistons stated that Citi is in contact with "a number of interested parties" and that the Pistons would have no further comment on the process "until there is substantive news to report."

Way to Go Pistons! Winning Meaningless Game Gets #7 Pick

I'm sure most of you didn't even think about the NBA Draft Lottery. I know I don't talk about the Pistons much anymore, but I still follow them religiously. The NBA is just so infuriating to me now since the Miami Heat won the title and my team sucks donkely balls.

Anyways...it was exciting to watch us have a shot at the top of the draft. I got more and more excited as it went from 15 to 10, 9, 8...then thud at 7. The Washington Wizards ended up at #1 and they lost ONE more game than the the Pistons did. So close...yet so far away from the top. At least this draft has about 10 guys you would be happy with. Maybe we can get a true stud for once. Maybe we get another foreigner stiff. Maybe we suck for 10 more years. Maybe I buy some wii accessories and play with my wii.

It's That Time of Year: Pistons Give Me No Joy

It seems like 20 years since the Pistons were one of the best franchises in the NBA. The last couple years have been rather brutal you can't deny that. Trading Billups for AI was the ultimate disaster for us. Even with the extra cash we got, we ended up blowing it on a guy in Ben Gordon who missed half the year, and sucks ass right now. The signing was ridiculous in every way. Made absolutely no sense at all, and we are going nowhere anytime soon with it.

Usually about the AS break is when we see just how crappy the team is and it is basically that time now. There is almost nothing interesting abut the games right now. Rather watch relacore commercials honestly. I don't even watch anymore because there is nothing I care about in any sense. MAKE IT GO AWAY JOE.

Oh yeah...how long before the team gets sold? Please sell it to a rich spendthrift that doesn't care about the Luxury Tax. KThanks.

Wow...Been A While Since I saw a Great Pistons Game

The youngsters came to play last night against the Celtics. I was expecting another one of those supreme blowouts we have become accustomed too the last month. The first half looked like they were well on their way to getting slaughtered, but they managed to keep it around 10 going into halftime.

I have been looking forward to this game for a while now. Especially after we started off so well. Wanted to see how they matched up with a title contender and a rival. Wanted to see what the crowd reaction was to my boy Rasheed WALL-ACEEEE as well. They were mixed, and it saddened me. Sheed was a man in Detroit and one of my favorites while he was here.

“That’s how it’s supposed to be,” Sheed said.

Still it felt like the game was slipping away in the 4th like they are prone to do in the 2nd half of games. Wasn't optimistic we had what it took to finish it off. The team just didn't bring the same energy in the 2nd half that it was earlier in the year. Only thing to talk about lately were the freak show that are the Bernstein family (You can't possibly have watched any Fox Sports Detroit game and not thought this is the most f'd up family you have ever seen.), and maybe some Orange NJ dental implants.

BUT...the boys came through with a thrilling victory. Stuckey forced to play most of the game due to injuries (Gordon, Bynum, and even Chucky bruised his sternum, but came back) got busy last night to the tune of 27 points, 11 boards, and 7 assists with a +14 +/-. Our boy Charlie V had a big game with some big plays. A couple big blocks to go with 19 points off the bench. 10 of which he scored in the 4th quarter.

CV and Sheed had a bit of post game chatter:

“Of course, he wanted to show the fans what they’ve been missing,” Villanueva said. “But Charlie V’s here.”

Villanueva scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, but Wallace wasn’t impressed.

“Chuck hit a couple 3s,” Wallace said. “He didn’t do anything extravagant.”

They just had the energy last night and played hard all the way to the end. Nice game to watch if it was one of your only ones during the season. Pistons won 92-86!

Pistons Finally Win!

Wow...I was really tearing my hair out over that team. Early in the year we got lucky and saw a bunch of young guys playing their asses off every night. Sticking in games, and looking like they were a real playoff team when we finally got Rip and Tay back from spending their nights on the sidelines wearing a tuxedo.

Then all of a sudden they started to lose. All THE TIME. Then it wasn't just losing. It was getting blown the hell out every damn night. To the tune of losing 13 straight games! How does a team that plays so hard to start the year become so bad?

Finally,the Washington Wizards faced a Pistons team that played an almost perfect game on Tuesday night. It actually took a hot shooting night, and a ton of assists for the Pistons to win this game too with a final of 99-90.

I just don't get it. Really I don't. I get it that they weren't going to be that good this year. Fine. I wasn't expecting much anyways, but they were a fun young team to watch early on. Then they just became a bunch of bungling fools.

To the lottery! Oh...and there is some 7 foot foreigner that is sniffing the top 3 this year in the draft. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

More Rumors of Tayshaun Prince for Carlos Boozer

While the Pistons have been rumored the entire off season to be going after Carlos Boozer, it doesn't appear that anything is happening in that regard. While I have little to no love for Carlos Boozer, the Pistons have put themselves in a position that they have neither money to spend, nor a big man on the roster worth a damn.

So...we are all resigned to the fact that either Tay, or Rip is going to have to be dealt at some point to get us one. With the signing of Ben Gordon as the free agent period opened almost everyone had to think that a Rip Hamilton trade would be forthcoming. While Gordon says that he wouldn't mind being the 6th man if Rip stayed, is that how it will eventually shake out?

Tayshaun seems to have a bit more value in that he is one of the most versatile players in the league, a superior defensive player, and I have heard him labeled a top 25 talent in the NBA before. While I love both Tay and Rip, I would not be against trading Tay away for the simple fact that he is going to wear down faster than any other player we have. HE has played more minutes than anyone in the NBA the last 6 seasons I would guess if you asked me this question. 6 Eastern Conference Finals, 2 NBA Finals, and even a few minutes in the Olympics. HE also has averaged nearly 40 minutes a game over that span, and hasn't missed much time to injury at all. HE definitely has the sound of a guy that could use some eye cream with all the sleepless nights he probably has.

So...the rumor now is that the Pistons along with both Portland and Utah may be looking at a 3-team swap that would send Tay to Portland, and Boozer to the Pistons.

While I wouldn't mind having Boozer for the season, I am definitely not enamored with the idea that trading for him will cost the Pistons a long-term contract starting at $14 Million per season. Boozer just isn't that good. We go from having the ability to sign ANYONE next year to basically not being able to sign anyone after this off season with the pick ups of Gordon and Charlie Villenueva.

Welcome back the teal jerseys. This team is gonna suck for a while.

Pistons Start Playoffs Today

OK...this is going to be a post from a fan and not from a guy who actually subscribes to reality.

Boston lost to the Bulls today so it looks like that will be a series missing KG. So what is going to happen?

Simple. Pistons will beat the Cavs, and the Bulls will beat the Celtics. Pistons will then play Orlando who they own. So we will make the ECF for the 7th year in a row.

While it may appear that I need to look for a healthcare career rather than discuss sports if the Pistons can pull of the unthinkable and beat the Cavs and the Refs they are a shoe in for the ECF because the MAgic can't play with us. Dwight Howard is not a true Superstar. Don't buy into it. He doesn't have the heart, or the killer instinct of any of these other guys like Lebron, Wade, Kobe, etc. HE is a joke. See you in the Finals...:)