Anyone else notice how our nucleous of players looks strangely like the championship Pistons team? PG: We are led by Francis, Detroit led by Isiah. Isiah was asked to do basically the same thing as Stevie, sacrifice some shots offensively to get others involved. Both could penetrate and both could score at will, if needed. SG: Anderson & Mobley vs. Dumars & Vinnie. Anderson & Dumars are both excellent defenders, who could score a ton when needed, although usually they took a back seat on the offensive end. Mobley & Vinnie were both sparks as their 6th men. C: Two aging centers for both teams in Dream & Laimbeer. These two are two totally different players. Dream is more talented on the offensive & defensive end, both they both were catalysts for their teams. Fs & backup C's: Lot of talented role players for both teams. Cato (even though he is actually our starting C), Rogers, Thomas, Williams vs. Rodman, Salley, James Edwards. All of these guys (except Walt) bring intensity to the game. Most of these guys were interchangeable for both teams. Whoever was playing well got more minutes on different nights. I know this wasn't a real thourough evaluation, but I find it encouraging to know we may have a blue print (the Pistons) to follow. Hopefully we can build our franchise around Francis, Mobley & Anderson like the pistons with Isiah, Dumars & Vinnie.
Popeye & Sir: Thanks for the feedback. Popeye I agree with you about Joe D, he was special! I believe he could have easily been a 20-24 point man if he wanted to, but he sacrificed his scoring for the team, while playing great Defense. Also I think the Piston may have shown how a team can grow together into a championship team with a core of players. They never really made any (I don't think) big trades once they got their team together. It took them several years to get over on the Celtics, then a couple years of holding off the Bulls, before age started to take its toll. I just wonder how many teams today do what the old Celtics & Pistons did: Get Championships, players get old, then go though a long rebuilding process. I know the Rockets were hoping to do this with the preseason offer for Dream (holding on to all old veterans for a run at the ring).
I know they did trade for Mark Aguire no more than 1 season before a championship run, who was an all-star with Dallas at the time. So that certainly was a big trade, one where they thought he was the final piece (I guess results says he was). Edwards was kind of a hired gun too I believe, I know he played at least a few seasons at Phoenix. So I would say they were always looking to add important pieces to improve the team as a whole, especially as they got closer and closer to displacing the Celts as THE team in the east. You always have to look at how to make your team better as a whole via trade, drafting and nowadays, free agency, or you will be passed by equal or lesser teams because they are looking to do so as well. This is what brought us the Drexler trade (which obviously worked out) and the Barkley trade (which in my opinion was still the right move). Of course you don’t have to do blockbuster trades, signing guys like Elie, E.J., Anderson and Carr can improve your team. Too bad adding Price and Roberts and a few others didn’t work out very well. As far as Joe D., I think he was the best player on that team. Thomas got more ink, and was an awefully good player too, but I think overall Joe was better. [This message has been edited by sir scarvajal (edited February 07, 2000).]
It's a different game these days isn't it, 4chuckie? I forgot Aguire Sir Scar(where you been anyway?). I loved that Piston team. Before the Rockets, that was the only team that ever made me look past the leperchauns in Boston who I grew up with. The Pistons, especially early, played almost every game, regular season or not, like it was the seventh game of a finals. Way above themselves and by the seat of their pants. every shift. I do see that from our young NBA teams at times. The Rockets in the last five weeks, and the Kings of late last year and so far year. pour it on. Throw it up. Bang it in. Make it work. Jam-that-round-ball-into-that-damn-square-hole type of play. I Love It!
Popeye, I have been around the last few weeks, a couple of months before that I was sparce around here--not by choice of course. The time I get to surf, it is usually here. Heard any good rumers lately, T-Mac, others?? Think we will roll the dice, or keep our 2 second year guards around some more.
Read along ......... cats out of the bag... Clips and Lakers are talking REAL close these days. And Miami wants in. Surf???? Surf????? Isn't that like laundry detergent? So, you've been doing your dirty clothes?
4Chuckie: While I love this sort of comparitive stuff ..... don't stretch it too far ... The Pistons had some history as a team together, their kinks were replaced with intuitive passing and "knowing" exactly where the other guys were on the court at all times. Turnovers were not an item they had to deal with every night. They weren't a bunch of rooks and semi rooks with a couple veterans like our Rox. Their coach was an impassioned, innovative gametime strategist who got the absolute most out of his players during game day ... an attribute in a coach that is unequalled even to today,IMHO. (Well, with maybe some honorable mention to Riley when he was in LA and two of the last three years in Miami(forget his Knicks years).) They had a team of tenacious role players including one of my favorite Pistons of all time ... Dennis the Menace. Yep, he was a fantastic role player on those Piston teams. A key man. A made guy. Lambeer made everyone honest in the middle,with his elbows and knees. Shaq and 'Zo are the only ones that punish people in the middle now. And they aren't even close to what lengths Lambeer went to make his mark. Certainly not Hakeem or Cato. They are not even in the same time zone as Bill's Bruise Bashing. Zeke had the most heart on the team, maybe in the league, and pound for pound probably the best true guard talent since Bob Cousy. He established his "own" passing zones and players just kinda ran to them if they wanted to get the ball. He had an uncanny knack at passing. Something that Francis can only dream of for a few years yet. Dumars and John Salley played a semi-finesse game, similiar to what Shandon Anderson attempts with the Rockets today. They both ran with "class". They were not there and the next second they buzzed in on you and were all over you. You had to be courtside just to see how effective they were off the ball. As I said, Shandon has this ability too. Both, but especially Dumars, could shoot off of either foot, either hand, and regardless of who as in front of them. Salley played a defensive game similiar to Robert Horry's long armed "poke and jab" style that Robert showed when he was with the Rockets and less so now with the Lakers. Dumars did it all,man. He was a shootin' tootin' rasputin' ballplayer. More moves than your favorite laxative. I loved that team, back then. Even when they lost a game, you got to se the absolute best they could play that night. Not many teams can say that about themselves. Then. And certainly only a few today, if any exist at all. I do agree that our nucleus has the potential to play the championship Pistons type of team game. I see some Zeke in Stevie, some Lambeer in Cato, some Joey D in Shandon, some Rodman in Mobes attitude, some Sally in Carlos .... we can only hope,eh?
I think it is compare the "potential" in our guards to Detriot's guards, but not the front line--Mark Aguire, Edwards, Laimbeer, Salley, Rodman, etc. Aguire and Edwards were among the best in the league at their positions in terms of offensive efficiency, they were very difficult players to match-up with. Laimbeer was an all-star as well and was younger than Dream will be in a couple of years. Cato is a bit of a Salley/Rodman hybrid though. Still, I do like some comparisons and believe the Detriot model is a pretty good one for us to follow. That is why we need more young front court players that can assert themselves defensively (excluding Cato, who is this way already) and a front court player or two who is a load to handle defensively--even if they are not quite all-star status. Damn Popeye, you make me sound like an echo. I guess I should have refreshed prior to posting. [This message has been edited by sir scarvajal (edited February 07, 2000).]
