jrange378 said:

I have no problem with smith shooting 3's at a 1-3 clip if in the same lineup as Drummond and Monroe. My problem is when throws up 3's when he is PF. When he's PF he needs to get in the post and bang because he has a strong post game. He has great success when he makes the right decisions, he just has to be a little more thoughtful of what position he's playing and who he's on the floor with.

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good luck with that. but i agree that Smith has a solid post game, he needs to be utilizing it more. i really don't like Smith shooting a 3 unless he is completely wide open, then it's a good shot, can't blame him for hoisting when the shot clock is running out though, which he has had to do also due to our poor movement on offense.

xer0 said:

the fact that YOU, of all posters would attempt to argue against what i posted tells me all i need to know and completely validates my post.

thanks.

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how. Dumars is responsible for 6 straight ECFs, 2 finals apperances and 1 title. yeah he whiffed on gordon and Charlie V but you cant expect him to hit a home run every time. he learned from his mistake with this offseason with the moves he made and still have TWO EXPIRING CONTRACTS he can use at the trade deadline or in the NEXT OFFSEASON to improve the team. extend Monroe etx.

michiganalex said:

how. Dumars is responsible for 6 straight ECFs, 2 finals apperances and 1 title. yeah he whiffed on gordon and Charlie V but you cant expect him to hit a home run every time. he learned from his mistake with this offseason with the moves he made and still have TWO EXPIRING CONTRACTS he can use at the trade deadline or in the NEXT OFFSEASON to improve the team. extend Monroe etx.

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he whiffed on josh smith and brandon jennings aka CV BG 2.0.

2 bad reactionary deals just to save his job.

Dumars is done, all he has is the past anymore, he's been one of the worst GM's in the league for years now.

Wayyyyyy too early to say he whiffed on Jennings and Smith, or Datome even. This team just needs to lose a bit to figure out what rotations will and wont work. Cant say Cheeks hasnt experimented a lot and I commend him for that. The rotation with Datome, Drummond, and Siva seemed to work well. Cant remember who else was in it.

Smith and Jennings are good players, You have to remember we had Maxiell, Knight and Singler in the starting lineup last year. This team has hope now. Knight has been injured and I doubt he will even be effective in MIL so Dumars trade for Jennings is a big win for us already. And Smith has already shown he can ball. Its easy to jump on him when he got benched after missing a practice because he stayed home with his dad that is sick. Hes had more good games than bad recently.

jrange378 said:

Wayyyyyy too early to say he whiffed on Jennings and Smith, or Datome even. This team just needs to lose a bit to figure out what rotations will and wont work. Cant say Cheeks hasnt experimented a lot and I commend him for that. The rotation with Datome, Drummond, and Siva seemed to work well. Cant remember who else was in it.

Smith and Jennings are good players, You have to remember we had Maxiell, Knight and Singler in the starting lineup last year. This team has hope now. Knight has been injured and I doubt he will even be effective in MIL so Dumars trade for Jennings is a big win for us already. And Smith has already shown he can ball. Its easy to jump on him when he got benched after missing a practice because he stayed home with his dad that is sick. Hes had more good games than bad recently.

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Smith is a bad signing because he's being asked to play in a position where he's not going to excel, Jennings basically single-handedly lost the game for the Pistons last night.

2 low IQ players that do not make the Pistons a better team.

If you don't see the pistons as a better team through Smith and Jennings you're wrong in more ways than 1. Last year it took them 9 games to get their first win. We are also obviously much more exciting this year which is a huge plus for fans.

Game 13 (11/24/13): Pistons @ Nets

Afternoon game, I'll be busy with the Lions

jrange378 said:

If you don't see the pistons as a better team through Smith and Jennings you're wrong in more ways than 1. Last year it took them 9 games to get their first win. We are also obviously much more exciting this year which is a huge plus for fans.

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they may be a better team, but they are certainly not a relevant team. i still like the smith signing but he needs to be playing PF, he's not a SF.

the Pistons need to trade Monroe, i don't think he's a max contract player and doesn't fit with this group well.

Pistons win 109-97

I picked the wrong game to watch today

xer0 said:

they may be a better team, but they are certainly not a relevant team. i still like the smith signing but he needs to be playing PF, he's not a SF.

the Pistons need to trade Monroe, i don't think he's a max contract player and doesn't fit with this group well.

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The way the team is being built, Monroe is not going to be with it past this year I don't think. I really think he will be dealt. Signing Smith and drafting Drummond, and then not extending Monroe leads me to believe they are moving towards dealing Monroe.

And now Villanueva is getting minutes, showing him off? Maybe. If we can get like a Harrison Barnes type player to throw in SF, and move Smoove to PF we improve in a lot of ways.

grandy said:

Pistons win 109-97

I picked the wrong game to watch today

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lol you and me both.

jrange378 said:

The way the team is being built, Monroe is not going to be with it past this year I don't think. I really think he will be dealt. Signing Smith and drafting Drummond, and then not extending Monroe leads me to believe they are moving towards dealing Monroe.

And now Villanueva is getting minutes, showing him off? Maybe. If we can get like a Harrison Barnes type player to throw in SF, and move Smoove to PF we improve in a lot of ways.

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i agree, that would be great.

xer0 said:

they may be a better team, but they are certainly not a relevant team. i still like the smith signing but he needs to be playing PF, he's not a SF.

the Pistons need to trade Monroe, i don't think he's a max contract player and doesn't fit with this group well.

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I think Smith is the player that doesn't fit this team well.

tomdalton22 said:

I think Smith is the player that doesn't fit this team well.

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I agree. But I find it hard to believe that we'll trade him after just signing him this offseason. Even if we were able to trade him, I don't know how good of a return we'd get.

If his contract was shorter, he might have more value. But at 4 years $54M, not sure why any team would trade for him.

xer0 said:

they may be a better team, but they are certainly not a relevant team. i still like the smith signing but he needs to be playing PF, he's not a SF.

the Pistons need to trade Monroe, i don't think he's a max contract player and doesn't fit with this group well.

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Got off the monroe trade bandwagon. And one month isn't whiffing

There are two things I know about this Pistons team as it is currently contructed:

1) We are going to make the playoffs, because the East is a train wreck and we probably only have to win a third of our games to be in the running for the 8th seed.

2) This team has no chance to contend with the current roster. Even if Drummond cleans up his free throws and becomes Dwight 2.0, the team is put together like a preschool macaroni project, and is doomed to fail.

everyoneneedsasmil said:

There are two things I know about this Pistons team as it is currently contructed:

1) We are going to make the playoffs, because the East is a train wreck and we probably only have to win a third of our games to be in the running for the 8th seed.

2) This team has no chance to contend with the current roster. Even if Drummond cleans up his free throws and becomes Dwight 2.0, the team is put together like a preschool macaroni project, and is doomed to fail.

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gotta love the positive outlook of some of u ppl

everyoneneedsasmil said:

There are two things I know about this Pistons team as it is currently contructed:

1) We are going to make the playoffs, because the East is a train wreck and we probably only have to win a third of our games to be in the running for the 8th seed.

2) This team has no chance to contend with the current roster. Even if Drummond cleans up his free throws and becomes Dwight 2.0, the team is put together like a preschool macaroni project, and is doomed to fail.

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I'm guessing Dumars is doing just enough to keep his job. Hopefully Gores isn't that stupid, but we'll see...maybe Gores will be fooled by a slightly better record.

michiganalex said:

gotta love the positive outlook of some of u ppl

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I had much higher hopes before the season started, despite disliking pretty much every move we made. I've written posts not that far back trying to temper disappointment. We are definitely more talented than we were last year. We definitely should make the playoffs. Depending on your view, those are two very positive things.

But I've wanted Dumars fired for a few years now. I think he's made poor personnel and coaching decisions for year, and I think his drafting "prowess" was more luck. Monroe was gift-wrapped to him by Golden State, Drummond by a handful of teams. Knight was a bust. Stuckey is a decent player, but flawed in ways Joe never accepted. Afflalo has become exactly the player this team needs, but we gave him away for a 2nd rounder and less than 1 million in cap space (that we needed to sign two terrible contracts). We gave away a first rounder in one of the deepest drafts in the last decade in order to be able to acquire two players that don't fit together or with the rest of our roster.

This team was supposed to be some great show of how talent and old-school grit can overcome years of statistics and new-age understanding. And honestly, this team does that in some ways. The fact that we have the 12th best offense in the league despite starting zero shooters is incredible. It's a testament to just how good Monroe and Drummond (ironically the players we already had) have been. The real problem is that we are one of the worst defenses in the league, despite adding elite defender Josh Smith. This speaks directly to coaching (every point of reference we had already told us Cheeks wasn't any good, but still) and lack of personnel (Smith might be the only above average defender we consistently put on the floor). There's just nothing there that shows we have the ability to suddenly turn things around into contender status. Jennings and Monroe have always been really bad defenders. Jennings and Smith have always been really bad scorers. The best SG we have is Stuckey, who is playing for a new contract and who plays best away from our starters. Even Drummond is a below average defender who blocks shots and rebounds, but is more often out of position. At least he could improve, but the improvement needed to make this team a contender is too much for any one player.